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TRAVELS 

IN THE YEARS 1791 AND 1792 IN 

PENNSYLVANIA, NEW YORK 
tjb^^ AND VERMONT 



JOURNALS OF 

JOHN LINCKLAEN 

AGENT OF THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY 



WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
AND NOTES 



'^<\\'\'^ 



c 



.%\ 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 

XLbc Iknicherbockcr press 

1897 



K-^. 



Copyright, 1897 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



/\V n, 



Ube Vtntclserboclser press, t^ew Kork 



PREFACE. 

TO those students of the history of the de- 
velopment of our country who find no 
detail, however slight, which bears upon it, to 
be unimportant, no apology is offered for the 
publication of the following records. 

They are here rendered into English from 
the French in which they were originally writ- 
ten on the small pages of two well worn pocket 
memorandum books, with ink or pencil, as time 
or place seem to have served. The compact, 
neat hand is characteristic of the painstaking 
accuracy with which the author describes all 
he saw a hundred years ago. What additional 
value the book may have is due, as will be seen, 
not only to the books consulted, but chiefly to 
the aid so kindly given by the late David E. 
Wager, of Rome, Paul Fenimore Cooper, of 
Albany, and Charles Dudley Miller, of Gen- 
eva. The editor also desires to make especial 



IV PREFACE 

acknowledgements to Dr. M. M. Bagg, of 
Utica ; Mr. S. L. Frey, of Palatine Bridge ; 
Rev. H. E. Hayden, of Wilkesbarre ; Mr. W. 
A. Wilcox, of Scranton ; Mr. James Seymour, 
Jr., and Gen. J. S. Clark, of Auburn ; Mr. 
Charles Stebbins, of Cazenovia ; Mr. L. M. 
Taylor, of Utica, for the map of the Forest 
Journey; to the Messrs. Kelby, of the New 
York Historical Society, and last, not least, to 
Mr. L. Carroll Root for deduction of title and 
accompanying map of the Holland Land Com- 
pany's purchase. The initials of many of these 
names will be recognized affixed to notes ; 
other notes, by '' L.L.," " S.S.F.," and '^ J.L.," 
refer to the authority of the late Ledyard 
Lincklaen, Samuel S. Forman, one of the 
pioneers of 1793, and John Lincklaen. 

Helen Lincklaen Fairchild. 

■' Lorenzo," Cazenovia, N. Y., June, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

List of Principal Authorities Consulted . ix 

John Lincklaen i 

Pennsylvania and New York Journal, August 

AND September, 1791 ..... 27 

Vermont Journal, September, 1791 ... 77 
A Journey with ' Mr. Boon through the 

Forest, April, 1792 95 

Exploration of the Cazenovia Tract, Octo- 
ber, 1792 ........ 107 

Appendices : 

A. — Theophilus Cazenove .... 131 

B. — Paul Busti 133 

C. — Memorial of Paul Bust: to the Legis- 
lature OF New York, March i, 1820 134 
D. — Holland Land Company Purchase . 141 
E. — Francis Adrian and John Jacob van 

der Kemp 147 

F. — Judge William Cooper . . . -151 

G. — Oneida Castle 152 

Index ......... 157 

V 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS. 

PAGE 

Gerrit Boon , . .St. Memin, Philadelphia 6 

Paul Busti . . .St. Memin, Philadelphia 6 

Theophilus Cazenove . St. Memin, Philadelphia 6 

John Jacob van der Kemp, Brown, Philadelphia . 6 

John Lincklaen . . Meance, New York . i8 

Map, Forest Journey, April, 1792 

L. M. T. . . . 98 

Facsimile Page of Journal 112 

Map, Cazenovia Tract. L. C. R. . . . 142 

Map, State of New York, 1795 

Samuel Lewis . Pocket 



LIST OF PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. 

Armorial de la Noblesse de France. Par MM. d'Auriac et 
ACQUIER. Paris, 185S. 

Benton, Nathaniel S. History of Herkimer County. Albany 
1856. 497 pp., 8°. 

Blackman, Emily C. History of Susquehanna County, Pa. 
Philadelphia, 1873. 640 pp., 8°. 

Broglie, Due DE. Memoires de Tallyrand. Paris, 1S91. 5 vols 

Broome County, N. K, History of ; with illustrations and biograph 
ical sketches. By H. P. Smith. . . . Syracuse, N. Y. 
1885. 630 pp., 4to. 

Cayuga County, N. Y., Gazetteer and Business Directory for 
1867-8. By Hamilton Child. Syracuse, 1868. 296 pp., 8°. 

Chenango and Madison Counties, JV. V., History of , tvith illustra- 
tions and biographical sketches. By James H. Smith. 
Syracuse, 1880. 760 pp., 4to. 

Chipman, Daniel. A Memoir of Thomas Chittenden, the First 
Governor of Vermont, with a History of the Constitution during 
his Administration. Middlebury, 1849. 222 pp., i2mo. 

Clark, Joshua H. V. Onondaga ; or Reminiscences of Earlier and 
Later Times. Syracuse, 1849. 2 vols., 402, 392 pp., 8'. 

Fulton County, N. V., History of. ... By Washington 
Frothingham. Syracuse, 1892. 645 + 177 pp., imperial 8° 

Hammond, Mrs. L. M. History of A/adi soft County, State of N'eix 
York. Syracuse, 1872. 774 pp., 8°. 

Hollister, H, History of the Lackawan^ia Valley. 2nd edition 
New York, 1869. 442 pp., 8°. 

Howell, Reading. A Map of the State of Pennsylvania. 1792. 

Hough, Franklin B. Gazetteer of the State of Netv York, em- 
bracing a compreheftsive account of the History and Statistics of 
the State. . . . Albany, 1872. 745 pp,, large 8°. 
ix 



X AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. 

HuiDEKOPER, Alfred. History of Pomona Hall, the homestead of 
H. J. Huidekoper. Meadville, Pa., 1S89. 52 pp., 8°. 

Jones, Pomroy. Annals and Recollections of Oneida County, 
Rome, 1851. 893 pp., 8°. 

Kapp, Friedrick. The Life of Frederick William von Steuben, 
Major General in the Revolutionary Army. With an introduc- 
tion by George Bancroft. 2nd ed. New York, 1859. i2mo. 

KULP, George B. Families of the Wyoming Valley. Biographical, 
Genealogical, and Historical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of 
Luzerne County, Pa. 3 vols. Wilkes-Barre, 1885, i88g, 1890. 
1423 pp., 8°. 

LiAN'COURT, The Duke de la Rochefoucault. Travels through 
the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, 
and Upper Canada in the years ijg^, I7g6, and lygj ; with an 
authentic account of Lower Canada. London, 1799. 2 vols., 
4to. 

Munsell : History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyomijig Counties, 
Pa., with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their 
prominent men and pioneers. New York : W. W. Munsell & 
Co., 1880. 540pp.,4to. 

Peck, George. Wyoming ; its history, stirring incidents, and 
romantic adventures, with ilhistrations. New York, 1858. 432 
pp., i2mo. 

Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd series, Vol. VI. Papers Relating to 
French Occupation. Harrisburg, 1S77. 846 pp., 8°. 

Roberts, Millard F. Historical Gazetteer of Steuben County, 
New York. Syracuse, 1891. 590 + 354 pp., imperial S\ 

Seymour, John F. Centetmial Address delivered at Trenton, N. 

Y., jfuly 4th, iSj6. With letters front Francis Adrian van 

der Kemp, written in i'jg2, and other documents relating to the 

first settlement of Trenton and Central Nejv York. Utica, N. 

Y., 1877. 149 PP-. S°. 

Sullivan's Expedition. yournals of the Military Expedition of 
Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of In- 
dians in lyjg, with records of Centennial Celebrations. Auburn , 
N. Y., 1887. 579 pp., large 8°. 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. XI 

Tioga County, N. ¥., Historical Gazetteer of, 1783-1888. By W. 

B. Gay. Syracuse. 493 + 245 pp., imperial 8°. 
Tracy, William. N'otices of Men and Events comtected roith the 

Early History of Oneida County. T'lVO lectures delivered before 

the Young Alens Association of the City of Utica. Utica, N. 

Y., 1838. 45 pp., 8°. Pamphlet. 
Turner, O. History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps &= Gor- 

ham^s Purchase and AT orris' Reserve ; embracing the Counties of 

Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne, 

attd Allegany, and farts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. 

. . . Rochester, 1851. 624 pp., 8°. 
Turner, O. Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western 

New York. . . . Buffalo, 1850. 670 pp. 8°. 
Wagenaar, Jan. Amsterdam. Amsterdam, 1760-1802. 20 vols., 

8°. 
Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pa., History of . By Alfred 

M.\tthews. Philadelphia, 18S6. 1283 pp. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 



THERE is to-day in the city of Amster- 
dam a short thoroughfare called Roeter's 
Straat, which, with the neighboring " Roeter's 
Sloot," seems, at least to the eyes of a stranger, 
all that exists to mark the spot once named 
"Roeter's Eylandt."^ A hundred years ago 
this must have been a delightful dwelling-place. 

' This they bound on two sides, while the Muyder Gracht and the 
Achter Gracht complete the enclosure, according to old maps — and 
new. On the North and West of this small territory the arrange- 
ment of houses and lines of canals was the same a century ago as 
now. On the North East flourished the trees of the Plantaadje — a 
large park-like space intersected by straight paths, in which people 
took the air on foot and on horseback, and which, though now to 
some degree built up, remains in its greater part still a pleasure 
ground, set with the close thickets, the still pools, the lawns and 
streams of the Zoological Gardens. On its South ran the Lyndbaan- 
graft, between which and the moat, the strip of land, or " Wall,' 
now encumbered by railway tracks and cavalry barracks, seems then 
to have been comparatively free, save for the windmill planted in 
each of its bastions. See Wagenaar, vol. I. ; Views in Holland ; 
Baedeker's Belgium and Holland, 1894. 



2 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

It la}' so near the line of the city fortifications 
that over them — beyond the watery girdle of 
the Singel — people could perhaps look across 
and watch the sail-boats threading their way 
along the hidden canals in the green outlying 
polders, and see the brown windmills laboring 
in the North Sea breezes, while yet they lived 
within the bounds and protection of the good 
city. Or they might pass at pleasure out into 
that tempting open country through the Muy- 
derpoort, now last of the ancient gates of Am- 
sterdam, always watching close at hand, as at 
this day. 

To a house that more than a century since 
stood among other private residences in this 
quarter, came back, in the year 1782, a lad of 
fourteen, summoned home from his studies in 
Switzerland by the news of his father's death. 
" In his own house on Roeter's Eylandt died, 
March 14, 1782, Anthony Quiryn Lincklaen." 
He left a widow whose maiden name was 
Gertrude Hoeven, an only daughter named 
Anne, and an only son named John. 

The latter, the younger of the two children. 



JOHN UNCKLAEN. 3 

was born in the city of Amsterdam, December 
24, 1 768, and on the same day was christened 
" ins Huys " by the Reverend Dr. Hageman, 
as is found by the records^ of the "old Lu- 
theran Church " on the Spui — Jan Lincklaen 
with his first wife Adriana Novisadi, the boy's 
uncle and aunt, being the witnesses whose 
names appear on the book. 

The lad was brought up, according to his 
own testimony in later years, carefully and 
religiously by his parents. When he was 
eleven, they sent him to Switzerland under a 
private tutor for his education — possibly to 
the Academy of Geneva, which at that time 
received so many of the foreign youth. But 
in less than three years the plans of his father 
were, as we have seen, cut short by death. 
The lad returned to his widowed mother ; and 
in August of the year following she too was 
laid to rest, as her husband had been, within 
the walls of the same "old Lutheran Church " 
of which they were both members, the burial- 

' Now kept partly at the church and partly at the old weigh-house 
— " St. Anthonieswaag " — at which latter place is the book of 1768. 



4 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

place of the family for two preceding gen- 
erations. 

It was probably to this time of desolation 
that he was referring when later in life he said : 
"In my youth I stood in need of assistance. 
I then had a friend who was both able and 
willincf to assist me ; he did so — and to him I 
owe everything." Be this as it may, his 
course seems to have been at once determined 
upon, and at the age of thirteen years and six 
months he entered the Dutch Navy. His 
commissions show that in December, 1785, he 
was made " Lieutenant ter Zee" — in February, 
1 786, detailed under " Capitan " Joan Ortt, and 
in August, 1789, under Admiral van Braam. 
When on April 23, 1790, he obtained leave 
for a two years' absence from his ship " Gel- 
derland " commanded by Admiral van Braam, 
with permission to journey to England and to 
North America, he had already during his life 
as a sailor visited the most important places 
in Europe and Asia, and spent some time at 
Smyrna and Ceylon. 

Accordingly, in or before June of that year he 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 5 

went to England, and sailed during that month 
from Falmouth^ for the United States. 

He was neither unsponsored nor alone, for 
this journey was undertaken " under the pa- 
tronage of Mr. Stadnitski of Amsterdam, the 
principal Director of the Holland Land Com- 
pany's affairs in America," and with "a 
particular friend of his own, Gerrit Boon, of 
Rotterdam, the Company sending the young 
men to America in order to see the new coun- 
tries, with letters of introduction and credit to 
their General Agent in the United States."' 

To this chief, Mr. Theophilus Cazenove, 
living in Philadelphia, the travellers without 
doubt reported themselves as speedily as pos- 
sible upon their arrival. It is stated that Mr. 
Boon returned in a few years to Holland^; 

' Old New York papers advertise ships sailing between New York 
and Amsterdam as " touching at Falmouth" — which from i6S8 till 
well into this century was the chief station of the British Post Office 
Packet service. 

See also A. H. Norway's History of this service, 1895. Macmil- 
lan, London. 

« S. S. F. 

^ For an account of Mr. Boon, first Agent of the Trenton Purchase 
of the Holland Land Co., see Seymour, p. g, et seq. He was living 
in Holland as late as 1822. 



6 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

but not so Mr. Lincklaen, who had entered 
upon the work of his Hfe, and the toils and 
responsibiHties of a pioneer in what was then 
the frontier of the great West, now the Cen- 
tral and Western parts of the State of New 
York. He seems never to have wished to leave 
the United States, although the first twenty- 
two years of his life, before crossing the At- 
lantic, were passed in surroundings strangely 
unlike those in which he was soon thrown af- 
ter reaching the new country of *his adoption. 

The old Continental social system, as it was 
before the French Revolution had changed 
the manners, dress, and thought of the old 
order, and the rigid and aristocratic training 
of a foreign navy would seem to make it hard 
for a young man fresh from their influence to 
meet the conditions of life in the new re- 
public ; — yet, like many another foreigner, he 
had the power to adapt himself to them with 
success. 

The pleasant life that he left behind him 
is reflected — as in a street-mirror — in some 
gay friendly letters written to him by a relative, 



Gerrit Boon 



Theophilus Cazenove Paul Busti 



John Jacob van der Ke^np 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 7 

a young Dutch lady, dated from Amsterdam 
and from her sister's country house. 

They deal with the " walks in the wood," 
the " Tuesday evening supper parties," the 
books they are reading in French and English 
— above all, their friends. Others, from a 
young fellow-ofificer and messmate, not only 
refer to their future in the epistolary style of 
the time — "the modest happiness that we have 
made our ambition " — " a simple cottage " — " a 
frugal table " — " a sleep of innocence " — but are 
full of allusions in a much less literary manner 
to their past ; — their voyage to the Mediterra- 
nean, their ship's sojourn by " that Magic 
Lantern of Smyrna " — the families of their 
acquaintance there — their shipmate Verhuel,^ 
then "such a partisan of the House of Orange," 
who later, as the wheel of Fortune turned, 
became Minister of the Dutch Marine under 
the French authority. 

^ " Verhuel [also written Ver Huell] was a Senior officer of mine 
with whom I served on board of the same ship during a voyage in 
the Mediterranean for upwards of two years ; we were very intimate 
together ; he was a young man of good natural abilities, but of little 
education, and was at that time not so much as acquainted with the 
French language." — y. L. 



8 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

Two years and a half elapsed between 
Lincklaen's arrival in America and the begin- 
ning of his agency for the Holland Land Com- 
pany in its Cazenovia establishment (May, 
1 793) and were chiefly passed by him in 
travelling. He was naturalized January 18, 
1793, within four months of the earliest pos- 
sible time in which he could fulfil the required 
conditions then demanding a residence within 
the United States for two years, and in the 
State of New York for one — these points and 
his good personal character being vouched for 
by Herman Le Roy. Probably before this 
he had taken his political stand upon the doc- 
trines of the Federalists, with whom, so far as 
is known, he always acted later. 

The earliest records of his work date from 
1 791 and 1792 — when he made several jour- 
neys into New York through Pennsylvania to 
examine lands — and one journey in 1791 into 
Vermont. There was one "in 1793 through 
the four-million-acre tract ^ in this State and 

' Contracted for in December, 1792, by the Holland Land Com- 
pany. — Turner, Holland Purchase. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 9 

Pennsylvania," ^ and in 1801 another through 
New England which had special reference to 
canals ; but of these no notes exist. 

Most picturesque and interesting of all 
might have been a diary of the journey to 
Geneseo, and the fortnight of camp life there, 
which Robert Morris seems to have expected 
him to share, judging by the following passage 
from the instructions to his son Thomas Mor- 
ris and Charles Williamson concerning the 
great treaty with the Seneca Indians respect- 
ing lands in Western New York in September, 
1797: 

" Mr. Wm. Bayard will attend the treaty on behalf 
of the Holland Land Company, to whom I have sold 
a great part of these lands — and perhaps Mr. Linck- 
laen & Mr. Gerrit Boon may also be there. I would 
wish you to communicate freely and confidentially 
with those gentlemen, or with such of them as do 
attend, and particularly as to what part of the Tract 
shall be taken into the purchase (in case the whole 
is not bought) after the Tract N°- i is secured." ^ 

• S. S. F. 

■ Instructions from Robert Morris to Thomas Morris and Charles 
Williamson, dated Phil. Aug. i, 1797. See MSS. O'Jiei/fy's Western 
Mementos, xv. , 53., A'. Y. Historical Society. 



10 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

While Turner states that Mr. Lincklaen 
was present, I find no record of it in the origi- 
nal MSS. report of the proceedings^; though 
this may be accounted for by the fact that he 
was to be there " under the rose."^ 

This Council, held at Geneseo — where 
" Red Jacket took the laboring oar for his 
people," where Cornplanter and other distin- 
guished chiefs were also speakers, and where, 
when all seemed hopeless, the younger Mor- 
ris' appeal to the chief women carried the day 
— had for its result the "Treaty of the Big 
Tree," or " Morris' Treaty," which enabled 
Robert Morris to grive title to the lands re- 
ferred to by him as already contracted for in 
1792, by the agents of the Holland Land 
Company.^ 

The Company purchased no land in Ver- 
mont, where the journey seems to have been 

' In the New York Historical Society's collections. 

'^ Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 403. 

^ The original articles of agreement between Morris and Herman 
Le Roy and John Lincklaen for 1,500,000 acres of lands of the Iro- 
quois, dated 24 December, 1792, are in the possession of the New 
York Historical Society. MSS. O'Reilly's Western Mementos, xv., 
9, N. Y. Historical Society. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. II 

made — partly at least — to gain information at 
first hand upon the maple sugar industry, 
which had assumed great importance and 
prominence at that time in the eyes of Will- 
iamson and other foreigners. 

It is stated by the late Mr. Alfred Huide- 
koper, in the life of his father, Henry J. Huide- 
koper,^ that Mr. Boon was a sugar refiner by 
occupation, 

" sent out by some Dutch gentlemen (essentially 
those who later composed the Holland Land Com- 
pany) to try if the making of sugar from the cane by 
slave labour could not be superseded by its manu- 
facture from the hard maple by free labour. A 
maple grove of some 23,000 acres was bought, but 
the enterprise proved practically visionary and abor- 
tive though based on the best of philanthropic 
intentions." 

Mr. Boon, though the hero of many tales 
and jokes at his expense on this subject, had 
the same opportunities for observation with 
his fellow traveller, and doubtless reached the 
same conclusion — that this industry would be 
of only minor importance. 

• Agent of the Holland Land Company's Pennsylvania purchase. 



12 JO URN A LS OF JOHN LINCKLA EN. 

In their first journey, the maple tree re- 
ceives the first attention, and every detail of 
its culture and the making of the sugar is 
stated — but in the later diaries, timber and 
soil take their proper and leading places. 

From the notes so carefully taken during 
these journeys, were probably made reports to 
the General Agent favorable to that purchase 
of land which so shortly followed. This was 
a tract of about 1 20,000 acres, comprising the 
Road Township and the Gore — a strip of land 
about thirty-two miles long and four and a 
half miles wide, lying between the Military 
Lands and the Twenty Townships, or Gover- 
nor's Purchase, its North line crossing the 
South end of Cazenovia Lake,' — and Number 
One of the Twenty Townships, later named 
after Lord Nelson.^ 

Mr. Lincklaen was appointed agent with an 
interest in the purchase to settle these lands, 
and arrived by the outlet at the foot of the 
Lake which he had first found Thursday, Oc- 

' The Indian name was Haugena, or Owahgena, signifying Lake 
of the Yellow Perch. These fish abounded in its waters. 
"^ See explanatory note and map, Appendix D. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 1 3 

tober II, 1792, on May 8, 1793, with the fol- 
lowing party : — ^ 

From New Jersey : Samuel S. Forman, 
Michael Day, John Wilson, James Smith. 

From Fort Schuyler : James Greene, David 
Fay, Stephen F. Blackstone, Philemon Tuttle, 
Asa C. Towns, Gideon or Daniel Freeborn. 

The new village that first summer received 
its name, which was given in honor of the 
general agent, Mr. Cazenove. Affairs went so 
rapidly forward that by July 11, 1793, a house 
was nearly ready, and in "the store" some of 
the goods' were displayed that were by de- 
grees brought up from storage with John Post^ 
at old Fort Schuyler, now Utica. The mill- 
wright is expected, the dam is building, the 
"Taylor" already there, the carpenters " ceil- 

' The narrative by Mr. Forman of their journey and of the early 
days of the settlement is given in Mrs. Hammond's History of Aladi- 
son County. 

^ These were procured, not for profit, but in order to give every 
facility to the emigrants and promote the settlement of the lands, 
the Company having appropriated $20,000 for this purpose. Under 
this fatherly Dutch patronage no one was ever reduced to going away 
from home for the necessaries of life or for agricultural implements. 
Moreover, land was cheap and credit long. — S. S. F. 

^John Post, an old German from Schenectady, was then the only 
merchant in what is now called Utica. Kapp's Life of Steuben. 



14 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEh^ 

ing a room with season'd and good boards," 
the "causeway on the new road" is making — 
and some of the bridges are mending. ' 

And a system of accounts is to be estab- 
lished, "which will serve," Mr. Lincklaen 
writes, " as a model for those settlements 
which will undoubtedly be made in the Gene- 
see and in the State of Pennsylvania in a few 
years." 

The next important date is of Nov. 7, 
1795, when Mr. Lincklaen writes that he is 
about "making a bargain with Peter Smith 
for a large quantity of his lease lands, amongst 
the rest that adjoining the city of Cazenovia" 
(the North line of which then ran East and 
West, South of the old Parade Ground, now 
the Green), and on Nov. 9, that the bargain is 
just concluded — for the lot just mentioned, 

" Lot 46 next Walthers, Lot N° 26 at the head of 
the Lake, one next to Mr. Burton, and some scat- 
tered ones throughout his tract amounting on the 
whole to 2684 acres, for which I give him Ten 
Thousand Dollars cash down. A large sum of 

' s. s. F. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 1 5 

money indeed ! but no matter — I am now master, 
and we '11 try to make something handsome of 
Cazenovia." 

Having gained control of the shores of the 
Owahgena Lake, and also her "petition to be 
set off in a Battalion separate from any other 
Militia," Cazenovia next petitioned (Decem- 
ber 28, 1794) to be set off in a town. This 
granted, the first Town Meeting was held 
at Mr. Lincklaen's house on April 9, 1795 — 
which, we find, prevented his attending at 
Whitestown on the 7th a "meeting for an 
Agricultural Society." 

"After the meeting of the Supervisors of 
the County [then Chenango] at the German 
Flatts the last Tuesday in May, and after the 
Court-term at Whitestown is over," he also 
writes that he had " some idea of building a 
Canoe on the Caneseraga, and going down 
the creek to its mouth on the Oneida Lake to 
explore the navigation." 

A year or two later eight head of Dutch 
cattle with grooms to attend them were 
sent from Holland to Cazenovia by the Com- 



1 6 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

pany at an enormous expense — probably the 
second importation of Holsteins into the 
United States/ 

Varied duties devolved upon a Land Agent. 
As Mr. Huidekoper well says, 

" Though they seem to an inexperienced person to 
be very simple and wholly mechanical, viz. to estab- 
lish the boundaries of the land sold, fill up the blanks 
in the printed form of a contract, and collect liquid- 
ated debts, — yet the business requires nerve, judg- 
ment, accuracy, some legal knowledge, and a keen 
insight into human nature ; and a landholder should 
have the patience of Job to await the slow accumu- 
lation that crowns the labor of pioneer life." 

Encouraged, however, for the time, Mr. 
Lincklaen in the course of a few years determ- 
ined to give up his agency for the Company 
and to purchase a large quantity of the lands. 
The enterprise, though very promising, event- 
ually became unfavorably affected by the pro- 
jection of the Erie Canal, and the subsequent 
diversion of immigration. Though still com- 
paratively a young man, he soon was attacked 

' See Holstein Cattle, by Dudley Miller, Oswego, 1885. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 1 7 

by ill health, which was not made easier 
to bear by this turn in affairs and the accom- 
panying grave anxieties. He proposed to give 
up the lands to the Company, but Mr. Busti^ 
who had then succeeded Mr. Cazenove as its 
General Agent, urged him to persevere, re- 
minding him of the entire dependence he 
might place in his brother-in-law Jonathan 
Denise Ledyard, whom, at the death of his 
father in 1803 when he was ten years old, he 
had adopted and whom he had educated as 
his son. 

Accordingly Mr. Ledyard, leaving a newly- 
begun law practice, entered the land-office, 
and by 181 8 had become his brother's chief 
reliance. Not alone had the lands about Caze- 
novia now become unprofitable, but the con- 
dition of the Western purchase was such that 
the General Agent set forth a petition for 
relief to the Legislature of the State, which 
will be found inserted later,^ for the full and 
clear statement it gives of the origin and pur- 
poses of the Company. And I may be par- 

' See Appendix C. 



1 8 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

doned for saying that its reference to Batavia 
as the first land-ofifice can only be understood as 
applying to the four-million-acre tract, for Mr. 
Lincklaen's letter' plainly shows that the little 
" Cazenovia establishment," but a tenth part 
in size, was really the pioneer among the many 
beautiful settlements both in New York and 
Pennsylvania, of the Holland Land Company. 
There is little to relate of general interest 
in the life of Mr. Lincklaen. His contempo- 
raries said that he "knew the world well," was 
"judicious, observing, and well informed" — 
" by no means a difficult guest " — " very be- 
nevolent, though a strict business man " — 
" social and agreeable." Not only could he 
give practical advice, as many of his letters 
show, but he asked for and gratefully received 
it. He read much, of the best books and maga- 
zines of the day, and his mastery of the Eng- 
lish language was said by President Nott to be 
beyond that of any other foreigner of his ac- 
quaintance. He was a Mason, like his father 
before him — having been admitted to the order 

' Page 14. 



John Lincklaen 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 1 9 

at Smyrna in 1788. The kindness of his heart 
is well shown in the following letter : 

" Whatever you undertake, you may always rely 
fully on all the assistance in my power, for be assured 
nothing is more grateful to my feelings than to be 
useful to others. When I was young I stood in want 
of assistance likewise. I then had a friend who was 
both able and willing to assist me ; he did so, and to 
him I owe everything. It is in gratitude to that 
great & good man (now gone to happier regions) 
that I think it my constant duty to do unto others 
as I was done to myself. Look, therefore, always 
to me as a friend, and believe me, Sincerel}^, 

" Yours." 



On the 22nd of February, 1797, he was 
married in Cazenovia to Helen, ^ second child 
of General Benjamin Ledyard^ of Aurora, 

' Born 15 Nov. 1777. Besides her brother he adopted one of her 
younger sisters ; also later, in 18 15, her niece — both of whom mar- 
ried but left no descendants. 

^ I. John Ledyard, of Bristol, England, born 1701, married De- 
borah Youngs, of Southold, L. I. 

II. Youngs Ledyard (2d son) married Mary Avery of Groton, 
Conn. 

III. Benjamin Ledyard (3rd son) married Catherine Forman, of 
Middletown Point, Monmouth Co., N. J. 

General Benjamin Ledyard left Middletown Point, New Jersey, 
with his wife and eight children in October, 1794, taking with him 



20 JOURNALS OF JOHN LI A' CK LA EN. 

N. Y., at the house of her uncle and aunt, 
Col and Mrs. Jonathan Forman, by the Rev. 
Francis Adrian van der Kemp. They Hved in 

their family of slaves, also ten in number — father, mother, and eight 
children. He writes his brother, on his arrival at Aurora, Cayuga 
Co., that they had reached Albany after nine day's passage by sloop 
from New York — the same day Mrs. Ledyard and "all my white 
family except Master Sam and myself embarked in a very convenient 
coachee for Fort Schuyler, a very pleasant and polite settlement near 
the head of the Mohawk and nearly one-half the way on from 
Albany to Aurora, and passed all the worst of the water way, which 
by the by was remarkably bad — at this time it was never known to be 
worse — on account of the lowness of the waters occasioned by the 
remarkably dry season in that part of the country. They were there 
attended to in the most friendly and polite manner by several Gen- 
teel Familys at Fort Schuyler [Utica] and Whites Town, 3 miles 
distance, until I arrived by water nine days after them. Mr. [James 
S.] Kip's particular friendly attention, with Mr. [Peter] Smith's, at 
Fort Schuyler, I wish our Friends to help remember and acknow- 
ledge. They arrived at this place in less than two days from Schen- 
ectady with pleasant weather and good roads — from thence we all 
took water and met with a great proportion of unseasonable weather 
as to cold, and one severe snow storm ; we had also more than our 
share of Rain, but fortunately for us the Boat that I had particularly 
prepared for the family, so well covered, kept all dry, warm and com- 
fortable, on and in their feather beds by day and frequently by night, 
for we seldom could find so good quarters on shore, and indeed no- 
thing but elbow room made it better anywhere. The Blacks, tho' 
less guarded, did well, and kept cheerful and happy. [These two 
boats were " Durham boats," or " Bateaux."] The family generally 
are much pleased with this place, even at this Autumnal season. We 
are very comfortably housed, warm and roomy enough for our own 
family, and can put a very particular friend behind a spare curtain." 
This house, a long log construction — and a very pleasant one — was 
immediately on the shore. The family on their arrival were lifted 
from the boats to the beach directly in front of their new dwelling. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 21 

the Company's house, where is now " Willow- 
Bank," already occupied by Mr. Lincklaen as 
dwelling and Land Office, until this burned 
down in 1806. In 1807 or 1808, he completed 
his own house " Lorenzo" while still his busi- 
ness prospects were flattering. 

In 1807, he with his wife united with the 
Presbyterian Church in Cazenovia, of which 
the Rev. Joshua Leonard was pastor.^ Before 
that time, though never an atheist, 

"the claims of Christianity were for many years to 
him inadmissible. While, later, Edwards, Bellamy, 
Watts, Newton and Scott were to be his favorite 
authors, till then the writings of modern Infidels, 
especially those of the French school, were generally 
purchased and attentively read by him, and had they 
been less disrespectful to truth in point of historical 
fact, he would have embraced them as conclusive 
against that religion, which, if not his scorn, was at 
least his dread. Not satisfied with his belief, he 
became at length resolved to give Christianity a 

'Dr. Leonard "was installed Thursday, June 6th, 1799, ^s 
Preacher to this Congregation," [Gen. Forman's MS. diary] and he 
has said of himself that he was " the first pastor who settled in this 
wide range of country — when, from Cazenovia to the Pacific Ocean 
there was not one Congregational or Presbyterian pastor, not one in 
this State to the North or South of me, not one to the East nearer 
than Mr. Steele of Paris, in Oneida County." 



22 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

candid hearing. Guided by his friend Judge van 
der Kemp, he accepted the Scriptures as the word 
of God, and first adopting the same phase of Uni- 
tarian faith as his friend, he went on and through 
purely intellectual and logical methods became a 
sincere believer in the Deity of our Lord, and was a 
devoted member of the Church throughout his life." 

The welfare of the village and land tract 
had always been Mr. Lincklaen's engrossing 
interest. It was said of him that in discharg- 
ing the duties connected with his agency, dur- 
ing a period of nearly thirty years, he had 
established a character for integrity and accu- 
racy, kindness to the poor, and liberality to 
the unfortunate. It was hard that the closing 
years of his upright life should have been 
shadowed by ill fortune, all the heavier for his 
kindly heart to bear because connected with 
the waning prosperity of the settlers. Through- 
out this trial, as through that of his slowly and 
steadily failing bodily strength, he was, how- 
ever, strengthened and supported. 

" He endured," writes a friend, " the sufferings 
with which it had pleased God during the two last 
years of life to visit him, with exemplary patience. 



JOHN LINCKLAEN. 23 

Aware of his situation, he awaited the crisis with a 
resignation which does honor to Christianity, and 
seems to have pushed the thoughts and affections 
of his soul from the shores of this world, even before 
the moorings were loosed by the hand of death." 

To his old friend, Francis Adrian van der 
Kemp, he speaks in his last letter of " the 
peace of mind mercifully granted " to him, 
" such as passed all understanding." 

He died on February 9, 1822, and is buried 
in the cemetery at Cazenovia, where in April, 
1847, his wife was laid beside him. 



[ 



GENEALOGY. 

^ ^ Jan van Lincklaen married Maria van der Kerpen ; 
' ( Mved at Cologne. 

I 1566, born their son Wynand ; 
J J J 1602, 29 January, married at Leyden Janneke, born 1581, 
daughter of Jaques Seghers, of Antwerp, and Elisabeth 
van den Burgh, of Ghent. 

1602, 30 December, born at Leyden their son Johannis ; 
in. -j married at Aalsmeer, Helgonda van Westerhoff, horn van 
Lingen. 

1635, born their son Wynand ; 
married Magdalena Huysman. 

1672, 19 October, born their son Johannis ; 
1693, 26 March, married Clementina, daughter of Jean 
Meerman and Margaretha Eggerix. 

1697, 31 December, born their son Jan ; 
1725, 29 July, married Anna Rentinck. 

[1731, born their son Jan.'] 



IV. 



VI, 



^ Married, ist, Adriana Novisadi, of Utrecht ; 2nd, Elizabeth Brockhuysen, and 
by second had two daughters : 



Anna, married, ist, G. Umbgrove, of 
Arnheim ; 2nd, Paul Ph. du Cloux. of 
Utrecht. 



Adriana Sophia ; 

Married Gysbert Westenberg, of 
Goor, Overyssel, and had issue: 
Jan Lincklaen Westenberg. 



25 



26 



JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 



VII, 



VIII 



/ m£ 



1732, born their son Anthony Quiryn ; 
married Gertrude Iloeven, of Amsterdam, 



[1766, born their daughter Anne.'] 

/ 1768, born their son John ; married at Cazenovia, Feb- 
\ ruary 22, 1797, Helen Ledyard ; [died at Cazenovia 
( February 9, 1822, leaving no children.] 

J. L. 



' Anne, daughter of Anthony Quiryn Linckiaen and Gertrude Hoever, his 
wife, born 1766, married 

ist, June 12, 1788, Benjamin Tack of Amsterdam. Of their eight children, two 
only survived : 

Anna Gertruyd, b. 24 July 1793 ; Benjamin, 

married, 1817, Lieut. Arriens, of the 
Dutch Navy. In 1835 Colonel Arriens 
came to this country with the young 
Prince Henry of the Netherlands, who 
accompanied him for a short visit at 
' Lorenzo." 

Benjamin Tack died 26 June, 1799. His widow married 

and, 1S02, Gerrit Wolters of Amsterdam, and had issue: 



A son, Lambertus Wolters. Born 
June 17, 1803 ; arrived from Holland 
at " Lorenzo," August 3, 1815, where 
he died unmarried, May 29, 1840. 



A daughter, Johanna Catherine. 



ARMS. 




JOURNAL OF EXPLORATIONS IN 
PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, 

AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 
1791. 



27 



ITINERARY. 



To Bethlehem 




Miles. 
51 


To Allentown & Back again . 


. 


12 


to Nazareth .... 


. 


9h 


To Shoops, 5 miles out of the 


way, & 9, is 


• I4i 


to the Leheigh 


. 


18 


to Wyoming .... 


. 


16 


from Wyoming to the mines 


. 


3 


to the Iron Works 


, 


II 


to Thornbottom . 


, 


17 


to Nickl"^ Sugar works & back 


again . 


18 


mistaken road 


. 


7 


from Thornbottom to the Tunkhannock 


13 


to Adlem's camp . 




7 


to the brear [sic] road . 




6 


to Shafer's .... 




19 


to Swingle's settlm' & back . 




6 


to S. Stanton 




20 


to Stockport 




19 


to Harmony .... 




24 


to Dulittle .... 




10 


to Chenango .... 




14 


to Mr Mercereau . 




6 


to Owegy .... 




14 


to Tioga Point 




20 


to W"" Wynkoop . 




6 


29 







30 



JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 









Miles. 


to N:t" pt 12 


to McCormick 






12 


to the Y^ Post [Painted Post] 






6 


to Coll Lindley 






14 


back to McCormick 






20 


to Chatarines t" [Catherinestown] 






20 


to the head of the Lake 






4 


the friends' settlem' 






26 


to Geneva .... 






16 


to Philpss [Canandaigua ?] . 






16 


to Geneva .... 






16 


to Cayuga .... 






14 


to M<=Danforth 






35 


to Oneida Castle & mistake . 






30 


to the Mill & back 






2 


to S. Lyard [Laird] 






16 


to Whitestown 






8 


to Meyer .... 






10 


to Dick (Edick) & missed roads . 






21 


to Cooperstown 






25 


with Cooper .... 






26 


to Schenectady 






62 


to Albany .... 






23 



795 



JOURNAL. 

WE left Philad'' Wednesday afternoon 
the 3rd of August at 5 o'clock, taking 
the GermanTown road ; — this village is 6 
miles from the city & is about 5 miles in ex- 
tent, peopled chiefly by Germans. 
Otherwise it is not remarkable save 
on account of the battle which took place 
there the [4th] Ocf 1777, between the Eng- 
lish & the Americans, the former commanded 
by Lord Cornwallis, the others by Gen' Wash- 
ington. The former remained in possession 
of the field & the Americans retired to the 
environs of White Marsch, where we slept this 
night, at 13 miles from Philad"" at Dishler's 
Tavern. 

We left at 5 o'clock in the morning, & 
breakfasted at the Spring House Tavern 18 
miles from Philad'' at the inn of Jo- Thursday 
seph Robert in Back County. [Bucks ^th. 

County.~\ The lands poor & light, there is cul- 

31 



32 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

tivated chiefly [wheat?], oats, Indian corn, & 
an acre of ground yields from 20 to 25 Bush- 
els, — We arrived at Bethlehem at 8 o'clock in 
the evening, very tired & half dead with dust. 

The water-works pump water from a spring 
to a reservoir 135 feet high, whence it is dis- 
Fridaysth tributed by different pipes to the cis- 
August. terns of the houses. 

Bethlehem has 600 inhabitants, all of the 
sect which call themselves the United Breth- 
ern. The house of the Single Sisters contains 
100. They who have the means pay 9 livres 
annually for their board to the Society, & the 
profit of their work is their own. Those who 
have not the wherewithal to pay their board 
are supported by the Society, & work in com- 
mon. Their principal work is spinning cotton, 
they also execute a great deal of work in em- 
broidery, muslin, etc. Each woman provides 
her bed — fifty sleep in one room, & three of 
the old women are obligfed to watch them 
through the night in turn. 

The house of the Single Brethern is ar- 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, I'jgi. 33 

ranged on the same footing — they have a 
table in common, & work during the day in 
different shops, & number between 60 & 70. 

The widows have also their own house 
where they live together. There is likewise a 
Boarding School belonging to the society, 
where there are 76 girls — they learn to read & 
write Enoflish & German — there are children 
from all the States of the Union. 

Their capital consists of land — 4800 acres — 
they pay their expenses by the revenues of 
the water works, a tannery, and the inn. The 
United Brethern may marry, but it is said that 
they are not permitted to choose for them- 
selves ; so soon as a young man wishes to 
marry, he speaks of it to one of the Elders, 
who chooses for him among the Sisters the 
woman whom he believes will suit him, three 
meetings are then permitted, & the woman 
has the right to refuse twice, but should she 
refuse a third, she shall never marry. Mr. 
Boon & I were at the Camp} [sic] of Mad* 
Allen at 6 miles from Bethlehem. 

' Country house (?), carjipagne. 



34 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

We sent away our servant & took another, 
Jacob Bachmann, of Allen Town. We each 
bought a good woolen blanket to serve for a 
Saturday ^ed in the woods. With this blanket 
the 6th Q^gj, ^^ saddle, pistols and a port- 
manteau behind, with a halter for each horse, 
we left Bethlehem at 9 o'clock in the morning ; 
we reached Nazareth — (^\ miles away — at 1 1 
o'clock, we bought there a bell for each horse, 
a good axe, allumettes, etc. 

There is at Nazareth an institution of the 
United Brethern as at Bethlehem, and a boys' 
school, but not so large, nor is the situation 
so agreeable. We left after dinner & arrived 
at Wind Gap, Mr. Heller's,^ at the foot 
of the Blue Mountains, we crossed them, lost 
our way, & buried ourselves in the woods, 
after making five miles detour in the moon- 
light, we arrived at the house of a German, 
Philip Shoep's,^ who gave us some eggs & 
good fish, & an excellent bed in the loft. 

' Heller's Tavern. See Sullivan s Expedition, p. 224 (Major Nor- 
ris' Journal). Now Hellerville, town of Hamilton, Monroe County, 
Pa. See also Map No. 103, A, of Simeon DeWitt Collection, N. V. 
Hist. Soc. 

'See Munsell, p. 6r. See also "Sliupe's" on Howell's map of 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 35 

We left at 9 o'clock, & after some miles en- 
tered the Great Szvamp,^ an immense marsh 
extending around for miles, there Sunday 
we saw the first M apple Tree; we 7 Aug. 
stopped for a moment to admire this, the ob- 
ject of our search. Mr. Boon, at that instant, 
seemed to descry beneath its bark the treas- 
ures of Peru, while I, for my part, would have 
wished to carve on it the name of my sweet- 
heart, — and Colonel Prop [sic] ^ saw nothing 
but the simple Mapple Tree, if any idea sug- 
gested itself to him on the subject, it would have 
been whether this tree could serve him in fight- 
ing the Indians and transporting his artillery. 

We arrived 18 miles from the place where 
we had slept, at the Lehigh River, where a 
young couple had just established themselves 
in the woods, & had bought 300 acres at i 

Pennsylvania (1792), on a creek off main road, between second Po- 
kono Mt. and Wind Gap. 

' On the line of Luzerne and Wayne Counties. See p. 247 of 
Sullivan's Expedition. The road through the swamp was made by 
Sullivan. 

^ " Col. Prop." Impossible to identify. Perhaps Colonel Thomas 
Proctor of Pennsylvania, Colonel of Artillery and on Sullivan's Ex- 
pedition. For notice of him see Stillivan''s Expedition, p. 342, 
note. 



36 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

Livre the acre, they intend to build mills on 
tht. falls, which are 20 feet perpendicular. 

There is a certain young man from Boston 
named Prescott associated with the man of the 
place, John Downing, in the 300 acres, there is 
an iron mine besides several others in the en- 
virons, they propose to explore it, the more as 
work is going on to open the navigation of the 
Lehigh which joins the Delaware at Easton & 
which will be open in 3 years. We arrived at Wy- 
oming at 8 o'clock at night after having traversed 
the woods without finding houses or people. 

We went to see the village of Wyoming, 
where are 40 houses, all of wood, and about 
Monday ^^^ inhabitants. The Land in the 
^^^ Valley along the river is very rich for 

raising wheat, grain, oats, indian corn, etc ; 
better can be had at 4 or 5 Livres the acre. 
The mountains that border the valley are full 
of coal, which costs only the seeking, & which 
is used in the iron works. Col- Hollenbeck 
& CoP Pickering' are the principal proprie- 

' See Peck's IVyoming, p. lOO. The famous Timothy Pickering 
settled in Wyoming in 1787. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 37 

tors. The first is tlie principal merchant, he 
brings & sends merchandise from Philad^ by 
the Lancaster Road as far as Middle T" on 
the Susquehannah, 120 miles below Wyoming, 
thence it is transported in bateaux of 5 Tons 
(each Ton weighing 2000 Livres) to Wyo- 
ming ; there are some falls, but they are 
passed without difificulty ; from Wyoming the 
river can be ascended to its source without in- 
terruption, which will make this place a spot 
of considerable importance for the trade with 
the Genesee Lands, etc. 

It has not yet been attempted to open navi- 
gation from Middletown to the Chesapeak, 
but according to the last report made to the 
Governor, ofood cfround has been found for 
making an easy & level road for 12 miles from 
Wyoming to the Lehigh River 3 miles below 
Bear Creek. This river will be navigable in 
three years, thus with only 12 miles' land car- 
riage all merchandise can be transported along 
the Lehigh to Easton, & thence along the 
Delaware to Philadelphia. This communica- 
tion will be of great importance to Wyoming 



38 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

the more as there are a number of falls in the 
Susquehannah, & that the navigation on this 
river will not be opened for a long time yet. 

N. B. There is a Thomas Wright' of Bucks 
County who has undertaken with his brother- 
in-law Thomas Dyer, to open the navigation 
of the Lehigh River ; they own on its banks 
below Bear Creek 6000 acres of land, with 
good timber, & a water power, & they pro- 
pose to sell the half at 153 the acre; their 
contract says that they shall make the river 
navigable for boats 10 feet wide, 40 feet long, 
drawing one foot of water, the whole for the 
sum of 1000 £. 

In the afternoon we went to see the mines 
of coal i^ miles from the town, they are very 
rich and mixed with iron and slate. 

We were detained all the morning by rain ; 
we released a man from prison who was there 
Tuesday ^^'* ^ debt of 253. At 3 o'clock, at 
the 9th ^.j^^ moment of our departure, arrived 
the Surveyors employed to lay out the road 

' See Kulp's Families of Wyoming, p. 1249. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, lygi. 39 

to be made from Wyoming to the Leheigh, 
they gave most favourable reports, so a speedy 
success may be expected. 

We left in the afternoon for Mr. Davidson's, 
8 miles off, & thence 3 miles further to Mr. 
Seerlle's house, he and his father-in-law Mr. 
Smith ^ have built a forge on the Lachouwana 
since this spring, there are two fires, & one 
hammer & four workmen — they work 200 
Livres weight of iron a day for each fire. The 
iron mine is one mile away & from their ac- 
count very rich. Mr. Seerlle had the polite- 
ness to give us lodging in his house or rather 
log cabin, & on our blanket on the floor, 
wrapped in my cloak, my portmanteau under 
my head, I slept after the fatigue as well as I 
have on the best bed of feathers. 

N. B. We bought at Wyoming a horse for 
25 £ to carry our provisions, and oats for our 

' Dr. Wm. H. Smith, of New York City, surgeon on Sullivan's 
Expedition, " bought right to dig iron ore and stone coal in Pittston, 
1 791 — and was much ridiculed, the use of coal as a heating agent 
being not then understood. He with James Sutton built the forge 
just below the falls on the Lackawanna stream about two miles above 
its mouth — the second iron works in Westmoreland " and lived there. 
Now "Old Forge," Luzerne County. See Hollister's Zar/^fl7c'rt;?«« 
Valley, p. 52. 



40 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

horses. The provisions consisted of a large 
ham, bread, salt, & a piece of cheese — our 
good Jacob having a tin bottle over his shoul- 
ders filled with a strong liquor called whiski. 

We left Mr. Sutton at 9 in the morning 
having awaited a man who was to be our 
Wednesday &^i<^^» t)ut who did not come at all, 
the loth scarcely were we away from the es- 
tablishment when on dismounting from our 
horses to wait for our servant, my horse ran 
away. Mr. Boon ran after & caught him & 
we pursued our road. About 6 miles from 
the place where we had slept, we halted in the 
woods by the side of a brook, put our horses 
to graze, & ate a morsel ourselves. At i 
o'clock we left there, passed through good 
woods & by several large Mapplc Trees. We 
arrived in the evening at Thornbottom ' near 

' I am indebted to Wm. A. Wilcox, Esq., of Scianton — through 
the courtesy of the Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden, of Wilkes-Barre — 
for the following : — 

" Thornbottom was the first name given to the locality by the set- 
tlers at Nicholson. Among the early land records I have found these 
names : — Black Walnut Bottom, Hickory Bottom, Hemlock Bottom, 
and the name Hopbottom still exists six miles up the creek from 
Nicholson. The term indicates valley land. I well remember that 
the flats along the Tunkhannock creek, where the Martin's creek 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 4 1 

the Tunkhannoc, there were there two brothers 
named Stevens ^ who have formed a settlement 
on the lands of Messrs. Samuel Wallis & Hol- 
lingsworth which he has promised them to sell at 
loi 3 the acre. The land is very good, but the 
Tunkhannoc can only be ascended with canoes. 

We started at 7 in the morning, following 
always Nickleson's road. After making 9 or 10 
miles over trunks of trees which twice Thursday 
caused my horse to fall with me, we ^'^^ "*^ 
saw on the top of a hill to the left of the road 
a cabin in the midst of the woods — surrounded 
with briars & thorns and scarcely approachable. 
It was the spot where Mr. Nickleson - had 

joins it, had when I was a boy a large number of thorn trees which 
bore very palatable fruit. They also extended some ways up Mar- 
tin's Creek. My first home there was along Martin's Creek, and in 
our garden there was a very large thorn tree. I have never known 
exactly to what locality the name applied, but always understood the 
locality to be the Tunkhannock Valley about where Martin's Creek 
comes in and where the present village of Nicholson is situated. 

" The petition presented to the Court about 1794, on which the 
township of Nicholson was erected, was dated at Thornbottom. The 
signers lived some of them in what is now known as Hartford, some 
in Benton and some about the present village of Nicholson." 

' Eliphalet and Ebenezer Stephens settled on the Tunkhannock 
in 1760 — first saw mill 1793. This is Wyoming Co., and Nicholson 
Township. 

- John Nicholson, Comptroller of Pennsylvania, and owner of ex- 



42 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

had his suofar boiled, there were still two chal- 
drons to be seen, & some other scattered 
utensils. If we were deceived in our expecta- 
tions by seeing only a simple hut falling to 
ruins, where we had looked to find extensive 
works, buildings, & workmen, at least we had 
the satisfaction to find here a quantity of fine 
mapple trees 15 to 20 inches in diameter, in 
some of which we still saw the holes where 
they were tapped, & the pipes with the reser- 
voirs where the sap had run. We set out to 
go to see the Hobbottom ^ where there are 
three families established by Mr. Nickl", but 
after going 4 miles through the woods, we saw 
we were out of our way by the direction of 
the compass, besides, a torrent of rain & 
abominable roads obliged us to retrace our 
steps, we went back to the hut, gave the 
horses some oats, built a fire to dry ourselves, 
ate a piece of ham & bread, drinking the 
water from a stream, our provision of rum 

tensive lands throughout the State. His log grist mill — " Nichol- 
son's " on the map — was about sixty rods below Whipple's present 
sawmills — abandoned in a few years. See Blackman, p. Ii2. 

' Hopbottom Creek, named from wild hops. See Blackman, 
p. III. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, I-JQI. 43 

being out, & in the afternoon returned to our 
good friends at Thornbottom who had pre- 
pared us an excellent dinner, & some tea. It 
is there that we met John Jhones,' living a 
mile away, who has the direction of Mr. NickKs 
lands. The latter has furnished him with the 
kettles & other utensils for making sugar, for 
which he must pay in a number of years. He 
gave us all information, & seemed an active 
& intelligent man. He has made hardly any 
sugar this year — his kettles having come too 
late, — but he proposes to tap 2000 trees next 
spring, having 12 workmen among whom 
there are some young lads. As there is no 
communication he offers to make a road of 
12 or 14 miles which shall lead from the Mill 
at the Hobbottom to the Susquehanna be- 
tween the Misshoppa & the Tunkhannock 
Creek for 10 3 pr. acre. 

Mr. Nickleson has 12,000 acres, 3,000 of 
which bear Mapple Trees, where he reckons 
there are 30 pr. acre. 

A tree 15 to 20 inches in diameter gives 25 

' Superintendent. A well educated Welshman. Blackman, 

p. 114- 



44 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

gallons of sap, & 5 gallons gives a pound of 
suo-ar. 

He proposes to establish a distillery. There 
are 3 families at Hobbottom. 

It is possible to boil five times a day, thus 
each time [illegible] hours. The kettles hold 
half a gallon. 

He will establish himself with his family at 
the Sugar Camp next autumn. 

We left at 9 in the morning, with a pro- 
vision of bread, ham, & whiski, & accompa- 
Friday ^^^^ ^3' ^^^ ^°^^ Ebenezer Stephens, 
the i2th ^Q oruide us throu8:h the woods, we 
passed some settlements along the Tunkhan- 
nock newly formed by persons coming from 
Gosshen in the state of N. V^ ; the land there 
is very rich, 3 miles from Tunkhannock there is 
a Henry Ellisson who settled there last spring, 
from 150 trees he made 200 lbs. sugar which 
he has sold in the neighborhood for i 3 the 
pound. The land where he has settled belongs 
to Messrs. Wallis & Hollingsworth of Phil^^a^ 
there is a tract of 300 acres that they call the 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 4$ 

fork between the East and North Branch of 
the Tunkhannock. 

There we gave the horses some oats, & 
crossed the woods guided by the compass, at 5 
in the afternoon we arrived at the East Branch 
of the Tunkhannock where we halted to spend 
the night, turned our horses out to graze, & 
built a fire at the foot of a superb Mapple tree ; 
we caught some trout, which we boiled, & after 
having satisfied our appetite we spread our 
blankets on some leaves about the fire, & tired 
by the journey I slept without awakening until 
the next morning. 

Left our camp at 7 o'clock, & about 1 1 
reached a camp made in the midst of the 
woods by a surveyor John Adlem,^ Saturday 
who was surveying the lands in the ^^e 13th 
neighborhood, at the Headwaters of the 
Tunkhannock. 

N. B. Since our departure from Thornbottom 
in crossing the woods to reach the North road, 
we passed a tract of land extremely rich, & 

' John Adlum, official Surveyor State of Pennsylvania. See Penn. 
Archives, 2d Series, Vol. 6, p. 765 — for letters on Indian affairs from 
Adlum to Governor Mifflin. 



46 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

covered with fine Mapple trees — we measured 
one of which the circumference was 14 feet — 
which makes about 4^ feet of diameter, 

Mr. Adlem not being in the camp, we could 
have no information concerning the land, nor 
its owner, nor the communications one could 
make, so we departed thence to strike across 
the woods to the North road where we arrived 
at 5 o'clock in the evening ; having found good 
pasture for our horses beside a brook, & being 
unable to get to any house without going by 
night over breakneck roads, we called a halt, 
& made ourselves a camp and a fire with as 
much agility as if we were people accustomed 
to this exercise. 

We left our camp at 7 o'clock, passed 
through a very rich country, full of Mapple 
Sunday Trees, & arrived at a log house where 
the 14th ^ certain A. Stanton' of Connecticut 
had just settled, from there we went 9 miles 
further to Shaffer's who has 300 acres of which 
he cultivates . 

'Col. Asa Stanton, of New London, Conn., first settled in the 
present borough of Waymart, Wayne Co. His log cabin was near 
the present house of his grandson F. H.Stanton. See Matthews, p. 542. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, I'jgi. 47 

We were at 3 miles from Shaffer's on the left 
of the North Road where there is a settlement 
Monday formed 4 years ago by an Ulrich 
the 15th SwingeP on CoP Hooper's lands ; he 
made last spring 200 lbs. of sugar, & has 
several acres under cultivation. We returned 
thence to Shaffer's ^ where we rested our 
horses. Shaffer has a large family, he settled 
there 6 years ago, & cultivates enough land 
for his family, but the lack of communication 
prevents all the inhabitants of this country 
getting anything to market. 

We left Shaffer's at 7 o'clock, passed over 
the same road we came by, we stopped a mo- 
Tuesday iTient at 9 miles distance at A. Stan- 
the i6th ton's, to provide ourselves with some 
rum, & started at 12 o'clock, following the 
North Road 1 1 miles further, where we 
stopped with the cousin of the first Samuel 

' Hans Ulrich Zwingle, from Orange Co., New York, first settled 
in the western part of S. Canaan township about 1783. Present 
homestead site owned by his great-great-grandson, Eugene Zwingle. 
See Matthews, p. 563. 

^John Shaffer, from Orange Co., N. Y., came to Wayne Co. in 
1783, and settled on Middle Creek below the old North and South 
road. See Matthews, p. 559. 



48 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

Stanton who came to settle this spring, & has 
bought of CoP Hooper^ 700 acres at i D'"" the 
acre for himself, & the people who are to come 
from Connecticut to settle. 

We left our friend Stanton before 7 o'clock 
— we followed the North Road for nearly 6 

Wednesday "^^^^^' ^^^^ crossed the woods by a 
the 17th path to the road which leads to 
Stockport, where we arrived at 2 o'clock in 
the afternoon, at Mr. Samuel Preston's, who 
has the superintendence of the lands of Mr. 
Drinker. Stockport is situated on the Dela- 
ware 3 miles below where the Popaxtunk flows 
into the Delaware, at the bottom of a very ex- 
tensive valley, the whole containing 10,000 
acres which belongs to Messrs. Drinker & 
Preston. 

Samuel Preston, quaker, & manager of Mr. 
Drinker's land, received us very politely in his 
log house, & gave us bacon & good chocolate. 
He began the Stockport settlement two years 
aofo — he has now two saw mills & another 
grist mill, he values each at 160^. He grinds 

' Col. Robert Lattice Hooper, of New Jersey. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 49 

flour for about 50 families of which the most 
distant is 15 Miles off. He employs from 20 
to 30 Workmen both for his Mills & for cut- 
ting roads of communication, he pays them 
from 3 5 to a Dollar a day besides their board, 
he gets sometimes men for 503 a month & 
board. 

He sends his boards by the Delaware to 
Philad^, & bateaux of two tons, which are 
usually 7 days on the way, the expense of 
which he reckons at 20^. 

He has found favorable ground to make a 
road of communication into the State of New 
York. This route, striking the North River 
near Ezopus is 48 miles. The State of New 
York has undertaken to cut the -|ds, and he has 
already finished the 16 miles which he under- 
took. He has also taken upon himself to 
improve & shorten the road leading from Stock- 
port to Harmony. The work of the Mills has 
prevented his giving much attention to the culti- 
vation of land, he has only 1 5 acres in condition 
to be cultivated next spring. He could not 
give us much information on the subject of the 



50 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

M apple Tree, the depth of the snow having pre- 
vented his going to Stockport at the time of 
the sugar making, however, there was made 
during his absence nearly 200 lbs, & a quantity 
of Molasses, he showed us his camp where 
there were three kettles each holding 20 
gallons. 

I was unable to see that in this neighbor- 
hood there were trees sufificient to support an 
extended settlement. 

We also learned from him there were two 
kinds of Mapple Trees — the one yielding sap,^ 
of which the leaf is a soft green ; the other, 
yielding no sap, has a leaf of a deeper green, 
with the under side of a pale blue. 

He further told us that Mr. Drinker had on 
the heights of the Great Band [Bend] of the 
Susquehannah about 70,000 acres, of which he 
had sold some at from 10 to 15 3 an acre. 

Mr. Preston seems an intelligent & active 
man, who appears to have given all his time & 
pains to furthering the growth of his settle- 
ment at Stockport, he lives in nothing but 

' Said to be called by the Indians Ozeketa. — Liancourt, i, p. 125, 
Note. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, I'jgi. $1 

a miserable log house, But I saw the founda- 
tions of a good house that he expects to build. 

We parted from our Host Preston at 9 
o'clock, having had our horses shod by his 
blacksmith ; a mile from his mill we Thursday 
saw on the road in going up the ^^^ ^^^'^ 
mountain a Rattlesnake 4^^ feet long, which 
we killed with stones. We followed the 
road cut by Mr. Preston to go to Harmony, 
always passing through the woods, and some 
M apple Trees ; we stopped after some miles to 
let the horses browse, & then kept on our road, 
the night began to fall without our having 
been able to find as yet any house, we deter- 
mined on account of the darkness to camp in 
the woods. Scarcely had we made a fire & un- 
saddled our horses, when we were agreeably 
suprised by the sight of a young man who 
came from a neighboring house, which was but 
a few steps away. 

It was the Harmony settlement belonging 
to Mr. Drinker, & managed for him by a Quaker 
Joseph Hillborn. Mr. Drinker owns there 



52 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

above 2000 acres, his agent has been there 
for a year, & has only cultivated as yet 20 or 
25 Acres, and made last spring 1 20 lbs of Sugar. 
This settlement on the Susquehannah does not 
seem to be so advanced as that of Stockport 
on the Delaware ; Joseph Hillborn told me of 
having sent to Philadelphia some peltries that 
he had bouo-ht at times of the Indians huntino^ 
in the neighborhood. 

We left about 9 o'clock in the morning, 
& at a mile from Harmony we crossed the 
Friday East & West Line which separates 
the 19th ^i^g State of Pennsylv. from that of 
N. YK We skirted the Susquehannah, pass- 
ing through cultivated fields & meadows, & 
from time to time finding log houses. We 
forded the river & arrived at 10 miles from 
Harmony at John Dulittle's,^ where we found 
oats for our horses & bacon for ourselves. 

N. B. The country from Harmony to Du- 

* From Connecticut. The first settler (17S8) on the West side of 
the Susquehannah river near the mouth of Doolittle Creek, in the 
present town of Windsor — on the Southern border of Broome County. 
See.//?VA Broome Co. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, IJQI. 53 

little & above is called the Okwago^ Settle- 
ment. There are 60 families composed of 300 
souls who have come to settle there mainly 
from New England within 4 years. The 
ground is rich & they raise much wheat, &c. 
They have begun to cut a road from Dulittle's 
on the Susquehannah to Cookhow ~ on the 
Mohock, a branch of the Delaware, it will be 
14 miles long, & will serve to transport their 
commodities to the Philad"" market. 

Fourteen miles further on, we reached Union 
Town ^ on the left Bank of the Chenango ; we 
forded this river & arrived by night at Union 
Town at W"" Witney's.' The Chenango is 

' Oquaga, a beautiful valley with old apple orchards, long occupied 
by Indians. In 1753 Rev. Gideon Hawley was sent here from Mas- 
sachusetts, by President Edwards of Stockbridge, as missionary. 
This town was in the present Cascade Valley near which Doolittle 
made the first settlement. — Hist. Broome Co., p. 268. 

^ Cookhouse, now Deposit, on Delaware River at mouth of Oquago 
Creek. Said to have been called by the Indians Cokeose — "Owls' 
Nest " — corrupted by English to Cookhouse — a name still used by 
the older inhabitants. See Hough's Gazetteer, p. 257. 

^ Union, formed Feb. 16, 1791 — fifteen years before Broome 
County was organized ; with Chenango, one of the two oldest towns 
in Broome County. — Hist. Broome Co., p. 422. 

••Joshua and W'illiam Whitney settled on the West side of the 
Chenango River about two miles above its junction with the Susque- 
hannah (where Binghamton now stands) at what was later called 



54 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

navigable for canoes from its source to where 
it flows into the Susquehannah. Its banks 
have been all inhabited since the last war, 
when the Indians fled further into the country. 

Started in the morning always following the 
Susquehannah, & travelling through a culti- 
Saturday vated country, from time to time 
the 20th meetingf with \o<y houses. At six 
Miles from Chenango we stopped at the house 
of a Mr. Jozua Mercereau ^ to whom I had a 
letter from Col' Hooper, the Father was not 
there, but the son received us with politeness. 
The Father bought last spring from Judge 
Wilson 300 acres of land, which he expects to 
improve, he has already built two barns, & 
will commence next spring to build a comfort- 
able wooden house in which he expects to end 
his days. We learned there, in drinking poor 

Whitney's Flats — and is here referred to as " Wm Witney's" — above 
the old village of Chenango. See Hist, Broome Co. 

' A Huguenot from Staten Island, later from Springfield, Mass. — 
Commissary General and Quarter Master General of the Continental 
army — came to town of Union, on South side of river, in 1789. 
First Judge of Common Pleas and Sessions, See Hist. Broo/ne Co., 
P- 25. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, lygi. 55 

beer, that Messrs. J. Wilson, L. Hooper, W"" 
Bingham, & Dan' Cox, etc., are the great land 
owners along this part of the Susquehannah. 
See Note.^ The first of these gentlemen asks 
4 Dolls, pr. acre & there is no doubt that he 
will sell at this price. A large part of these 
lands is cultivated by people who have come 
to settle themselves with no other rights than 
those of nature ; they have as yet paid noth- 
ing, but this year the owners have begun to 
demand of them ^ of the yield ; several indi- 
viduals oppose this payment ; the owners have 
not as yet forced it, but it is said they will 
next year be more particular in exacting this 
payment. 

We left there in the afternoon & 14 miles 
further were at Owegy with the High Sheriff 
McMasters,^ across the river from his house is 
an Indian who settled there some time ago 

' rage 75. 

'^ Jas. McMaster — soldier in Clinton's arniy on Sullivan's Expedi- 
tion — came back to Owego in 17S4, conciliated the Indians, and 
brought his family here in 1788, from Florida, Montgomery Co. 
His home was near the river, opposite the foot of present Academy 
St., on the line of the old Indian trail. He acquired eighteen square 
miles of land — "the McMaster half-township," on which Owego 
stands. See Hist. Tioea Co. 



56 JOURNALS OF JOHN- LINCKLAEN. 

with his family & who seems to prefer the 
company of the whites to that of his com- 
patriots. 

We crossed the river to see his family, but 
as soon as his wife saw us she took flight, & 
hid herself in the maize, followed by her chil- 
dren, & left us masters of her house & of her 
housekeeping, her hut was made of stakes, & 
some leaves served for bedding. 

We left Owegy after having examined the 
Sheriff's saw-mill, always following the Sus- 
Sunday quehanuah, by a pretty good path, 
the 2ist ^^ ^ ^^ reached Tioga Point,^ the 
spot where the Tioga River flows into the 
Susquehannah. There are several houses and 
a store belonging to Guy McWill,"^ otherwise 
the place appeared to me of no importance, 
except it be that the Indians were pursued & 
beaten by the United States Army commanded 
by General Sullivan in the year 1779. 

' "Tioga Point, (now Athens) occupied by Delawares, was a famous 
stopping place for Indians — trails radiated from there in every direc- 
tion." — Hist. Tioga Co. 

- Probably Guy Maxwell, who was Sheriff of Tioga in iSoo. See 
Hist. Tioga Co., p. 55. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 5/ 

We went 6 miles further & arrived at 
William Wynkoop's/ a substantial farmer who 
4 years ago came from Esopus to settle here 
on the Tioga. 

We sacrificed this day to resting our horses, 
& having our linen washed, in the afternoon 
we went to see the farm of our host Monday 
William Wynkoop, he has 500 acres ^^e 22d 
& cultivates nearly 50, he has also built a grist- 
mill & a saw-mill, & has commenced to build 
a comfortable house. 

Just as we were starting we met Mayor 
[Major] Adam Hoops,^ to whom I had a letter 
from Mr. Morris, we went together Tuesday 
to Newtown Point ^ & from thereto the 23rd 

'Wm. Wynkoop kept the first inn in the town of Chemung, on 
Wynkoop Creek. He was from Ulster County, and with two other 
men made the first settlement of the town of Breckville in 1788. 
See Hough's Gazetteer, p. 214. 

- Major Hoops served through the Revolution, was on the staff of 
Gen. Washington, and was also Third Aid de Camp to Sullivan on 
his expedition against the Six Nations. Later he lived in Philadel- 
phia, and was greatly esteemed by Robert Morris both as a man, and 
as a surveyor. He commenced the settlement of Olean in 1804. 
He died, unmarried, in Westchester, Pa., about 1S35. See Turner, 
Holland Purchase, p. 243. 

^ Now Elmira. See Turner, Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, p. 
no. 



58 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

Painted Post where he is surveying Mr. Morris' 
land which he has bought of Messrs. PhiHps 
\jPhelps\ & Gorham. We went on to Mr. 
Baaldens^ thence to Newtown Point where 
the treaty with the Indians was held in the 
month of July under the direction of CoP Pick- 
ering, there were more than looo Indians, 
as many women as men coming from all 
quarters of Lake Ontario & Lake Erie ; they 
were given blankets & sent back with provi- 
sions to their lands. We saw the remains of 
their camp, etc. From Newtown Point 12 
Miles further to Major Henry McCormick's.^ 

N.B. one finds along the Tioga some ex- 
tremely fertile valleys, our host McCormick 
gathered in 60 bushels of Indian corn from one 
acre. There are some well tilled farms, but 
these people accustomed to live in the woods 
know none of the comforts of life whether in 
their Houses or their Clothing. 



' Isaac Baldwin, of Norwich, Conn., came to the town of Chemung, 
then in Tioga County, in 1787. Roberts, Hist. Steuben Co., p. 99. 

^ In 1790-1-2, Elias, William, and Henry McCormick joined the 
settlement begun in 178S in Centreville, near the present village of 
Corning, Steuben County. vSee Hough's Gazetteer, p. 627, 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 59 

We left the Major to go to Painted Post, 6 
miles, thence we traversed the Township No. 
2 in the second range of CoP Erwin.^^^^j^gg^^y 
This township of 6 miles square *^^ 24th 
contains 23,040, acres & is watered by 
the Canestio, the Conhogto, & the Tioga, 
rivers which unite in the middle of these 
lands, and render them extremely good & 
fertile, there are oak & Pine. Leaving there, 
one reaches the township of Col' Lindlay No. 
4, second range, which the Tioga crosses in 
the middle, & where large bateaux can go up 
— it is impossible to imagine richer lands, large 
meadows formed by nature in the middle of 
the woods, never cultivated by the hand of 
man, are covered with grass as high as a man 
on horseback, there is besides superb timber 
& a fair quantity of Mapple Trees. We arrived 
at CoP Lindley's' in the evening, he bought 

' Col. Arthur Erwin, of Bucks Co., Pa., came from near Antrim, 
Ireland, before the Revolution and settled on a large estate at Erwina, 
Bucks Co., Pa. He served in the Revolutionary War. He bought 
nearly five thousand acres near Tioga Point, and later in 1789, the 
township of Erwin, and parts of townships of Canisteo and Hornells- 
ville. — Roberts, Hist. Steuben Co., p. 312. 

^Coi. Lindley (died 1794) was born in New Haven, married in 



60 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

this land of Messrs. Philips & Gorham, & 
came from New Jersey to settle there last 
autumn ; for the short time he has been there 
he has already done much, & doubtless in some 
years he will be surrounded by all the comforts 
& conveniences that make life agreeable. He 
has had from one acre as much as 35 Bushels 
of wheat, & 65 to 70 Bushels of Maize. 

He proposes to sell half of his Township 
that is 1 1,520 acres for \ Dollar on condition 
that the buyers build & cultivate. He is put- 
ting- up a saw mill & a flour-mill & a road is to 
be cut from his house to Painted Post 12 miles. 

His family is charming. His wife writes 
verses, and has made some on the situation of 
the place which have appeared in the papers. 

We left with regret so agreeable a place as 
Thursday ^^^ Lindley's, to return to Major 
25th McCormick's, which we reached in 

the evening. 

1756 Mary Miller of Morristovvn, N. J. ; served with the Jersey Blues 
during the Revolutionary War, was the original proprietor of the 
town of Lindley, settled on Tioga Flats and built the first saw-mill 
in 1790 ; a Presbyterian and a strict observer of Sunday. — Roberts, 
Hist, Steuben Co., pp. 453-4. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 6l 

From Major McCormick's to Chatherine's 
Town 20 miles. From to Chat- 
herine's town ^ we pass through a Friday 
swamp where there is quite a large 26th 

quantity of Mapple Trees, but the country 
seems unhealthy, & water is very scarce, in 
these parts they have kept to the bad habit of 
cutting with an axe the trees that have been 
tapped. 

At Chatherine's town is a cataract falling 90 
feet perpendicularly from a stream that pours 
into the Lake, from Chatherine's town to the 
head of Lake Seneca, at Kolver's,^ there is a 
settlement of 40 persons but no one is pro- 
prietor of the land, which is not of the best, & 
unhealthy. 

We left for the Friends' Settlem^ ^ 26 miles 

' Near the present village of Havana, " the former home of Cath- 
erine Montour, the granddaughter of Madame Montour, and sister of 
Queen Esther." — Stillivans Expedition, p. 129. 

* Now Watkins. David Culver was among the early settlers. See 
Hough's Gazetteer, p. 64. 

" Begun 1788. About one mile South of the present village of 
Dresden, Yates Co. The primitive highway of all this region was on 
the West bank of Seneca Lake on the Indian trail through the valley 
of the Susquehanna, and across Western New York to Upper Canada. 
Turner, Phelps and Goi'ham s Purchase, pp. 127, 156. 



62 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

through swamps & woods, some M apple Trees 
Saturday ^^^ "^^^ ^^ %'(^2X quantity, arrived 
27*^ there at Brown's, a quaker. See 

note. 

Were at Church to hear the Universal 
friend ; this woman, who may be 33 years old, 
Sunday ^^^ born in Rhode Island. She sets 
28^^ forth that she is sent by Jesus Christ, 

and enlightened by his spirit to convert man- 
kind. I sought, but in vain, to find some 
principles on which she founds her religion, 
but her sermon was only a quantity of vain 
words without sense or reason, & the little 
book which she has published under the title 
o{ friejid's advice was in the same style. There 
are in this settlement made 3 years ago, 378 
souls in 60 families ; the State of New York 
has sold them a district of 12,000 acres, 4000 
at 2 3 & 8000 at 1/6 3 , of which the payments 
are to be made in March, the lands are not of 
the best, & in all the neighborhood the horses 
pine away, which is attributed to a poisonous 
plant which they eat in the woods. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, I'jgi. 63 

We left in the afternoon, & arrived at 
Geneva on Lake Canedesago, or Senequa, 
crossing Mapple lands, there are there a dozen 
houses. From there bateaux of i or 2 tonneaux 
can reach New York in 9 or 11 days with 16 
miles of land carriage. 

We left for [Cannadogway] 16 miles, through 
a swamp of 10 miles in the loth township of 
the Sec^ range, where there is a Monday 
quantity of Mapple, the largest part 29th 
of this township belongs to Gen^ Chapin,^ his 
son-in-law Capt" Wells has a fine farm 4 miles 
from Canadagway — they get a harvest of 20 
bushels of wheat an acre. Arrived at Cana- 
dagway in the afternoon at 's, who 

keeps a tavern.^ Judge Philips [Phelps] has 
his room there, we found him there ill like the 
2 Messrs. Morris' coming from Niagara. Cana- 

' Bom at Hatfield, Mass. Served through the Revolutionary- 
War. Came to Canandagua in 1789 ; died 1795. See Turner. 

- Probably Sanborn's, on Atwater Corner, a famous tavern. — 
Turner, Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, p. 66. 

^ Son of Robert Morris. Mr. Morris came from Philadelphia via 
Wilkesbarre and what was called Sullivan's path to Newtown Point, 
now Elmira ; attended Pickering's Indian treaty, went to Niagara, 
and returned by Canandaigua. — Turner, Phelps and Gorhaiiis Pur- 
chase, p. 291. 



64 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

dagway has 43 Dwelling houses, the land good 
enough, but the water very bad, which is con- 
sidered one of the principal causes which makes 
this country so unhealthy, the town is divided 
in Lots of 10 acres which sell at 6^ (15 Dlrs) 
of New York, & back Lots of 30 acres at 12^ 
(30 Dlrs.) The Lake is 16 miles long by one 
wide, the navigation is of no importance ; how- 
ever, small bateaux can come from New York 
to within 5 miles of the place. 

N. B. See notes at other end of book. 

We rested our horses, dined at Mr. Gor- 
ham's son of Mr. Philips'^ partner, he lives in 
Tuesday Connecticut & passes only the sum- 
30th j^-jgj. \^ {-j^jg climate, but Mr. Gorham 

expects to establish himself here altogether. 

Detained by the rain, we resolved to go no 
further, on account of the bad roads & the 
Wednesday sw^"^ps which prevent our crossing 
31®* the woods to Lake Ontario ; we left 

' Oliver Phelps was born in Windsor, Conn. He was in the Bat- 
tle of Lexington. Like Adam Hoops he had close business relations 
with Robert Morris, and like Morris he closed his life in the midst 
of business reverses. Hedied at Canandaigua in 1809. See Turner, 
Holland Purchase, p. 328. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, I'jgi. 65 

at noon on the same road for Geneva, where 
we arrived in the evening, having found an 
Indian family encamped in the woods, some 
pretty children painted red, squaws, etc. 

We made acquaintance at Geneva with Dr. 
Adams,^ a very polite man, who of- ^, 

•' ^ Thursday 

fered us a Bed & showed us every the ist 
possible kindness. 

We left for Cayuga Lake after crossing the 
outlet of Seneca Lake in a pontoon, & passing 
through woods full of Mapple Trees, & lands ex- 
cellent but without water ; crossed the Cayuga 
Lake which is more than a mile wide, & arrived 
on the other side at Harris,^ a man who lives in 
the Cayuga Reservation Land. This tract 
still belongs to the Cayuga Indians & Mr. 
Harris has been obliged to make a contract 
with them to get permission to dwell ther;e for 
several years, & pays them a certain sum of 

' Dr. Adams was a physician in Geneva in the earliest years of its 
settlement ; he died there, and was buried where Trinity Church now 
stands.— Letter of G. W. Nicholas to Col. C. D. Miller, 1894. 

- The Cayuga Ferry was kept by John Harris, from Harrisburg, 
Pa. (later one of the Cayuga Bridge Co.) and James Bennet. — See 
Cayuga Co. Gazetteer. 



66 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

money yearly. The Indians have at 3 miles 
distance from his home a settlement of about 
20 families. 

We started through the woods, & by a bad 
road, but over very good land with much 
Friday Mapple, to Joseya Bock's,^ living in 
2** the woods 16 miles from Cayuga in 

the Military tract, thence to Major Danforth's ^ 
i8-|- miles, in the Onondaga Reservation. 

As our horses had strayed off in the woods 
we could not set out till noon ; we passed 
Saturday through woods entirely composed of 
y^ Mapple & beech, here & there plains 

covered with wild grass, all in the Onondaga 

' " Josiah Buck settled on lot 82 a mile West of Elbridge in Onon- 
daga County about 1790. He was the first settler on the old Genesee 
road between Cayuga Lake and Onondaga Valley and the only settler 
when John L. Hardenburgh first settled in Auburn in 1792. There 
is no doubt whatever on the question of the reference to this person. 
He was one of the Surveyors engaged on the Military Tract under 
DeWitt." — Letter of Gen. John S. Clark, Auburn, N. Y., to James 
Seymour, Jr. 

* Asa Danforth was born in Worcester, Mass., was a Major 
throughout the Revolutionary War ; having lost everything by Con- 
tinental currency, he went to Mayfield in Montgomery Co., N. Y., 
thence to Onondaga, where he settled a little South of the Hollow in 
May, 1788, and in that year began making salt. He was a remarkable 
man, much looked up to, and was most hospitable to everyone without 
money and without price. — See Clark's Onondaga, vol. ii., p. 115. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 6/ 

reservation, a tract of land lo miles square, 
which has been kept by these Indians, they do 
not number more than 70 souls, a great part 
having perished & others having withdrawn 
to the lands near Lake Erie. 

Mr. Boon & I having taken the lead — the 
horse of Col' P. being lame — we found our- 
selves in the midst of the woods & in a swamp 
when the darkness no longer permitted us to 
see our horses heads ; we resolved to stop & 
build a fire ; after making vain efforts for 3 
hours, & firing off our pistols without success, 
we had to lie down on the ground on our bear- 
skin, wrapped in cloak & blanket ; having tied 
the horses to a tree, we at first resolved not to 
sleep, & to keep ourselves awake by telling 
stories, fearing the approach of bears & 
wolves, but weariness prevented, slumber took 
possession of us, & I slept till the break of 
day, when my comrade had much ado to waken 
me, we were on our horses at \\ o'clock, & 
returned by the same road to find again an 
Indian village which we had left the evening 
before, & where no one could understand us, 



68 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

we found there only women, the men being 
either still in bed or hunting in the woods, 
after many signs a Squaw put us on the road, 
& at 9 o'clock we reached the Oneida Castle,^ 
an Indian town, where we found a white man 
settled, who gave us a good breakfast & some 
maize for our horses, some hours later we saw 
Col. P. & our servant arriving from another 
quarter, they had undergone the same fate, & 
camped in an Indian hut. 

Oneida Castle is wholly inhabited by Indians 
of the Oneida tribe, who have kept a reserva- 
tion of 20 square miles — they number 780, & 
have a Minister named Mr. Kitland '^ paid 
by the U. S., who instructs them in the Chris- 
tian religion ; we went to the Church where 
Mr. K. preached in their language — we 
were surprised at the attention with which all 
the congregation assisted at the sermon, sing- 
ing as well & in as perfect tune as could be in 
any church.^ An Indian named Good Peter, '^ 

' In the town of Vernon. See Appendix G. 
- Rev, Samuel Kirkland. Jones' Oneida Co., p. 205. 
^ See Jones, Oneida Co., p. 214, for a corroboration of this account 
of the native music. 

'' Prominent at the Council held by Gov. Clinton with the Six 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 69 

after the sermon explained more particularly 
what the minister had preached, he was elo- 
quent, & his gray hair made him venerable. 

There was there a certain French Pcter^ 
son of an Indian woman & a Frenchman, the 
Marquis de la fayette took him with him to 
Paris where he received education for 3 years, 
he speaks French & English very well & a 
little German, on coming home he married an 
Indian woman, has 2 children, & is 22 years 
old. 

The Oneida tribe is the most considerable 
of the Six Nations which remain on the terri- 
tory of the United States. The minister who 
has been among them for 26 years assured me 
that during that time they had diminished by 
half, but for 4 or 5 years, since they began to 
be civilized, to live in houses & raise grain, 
they no longer diminished, and he did not 
despair with care & encouragement, of their 
reaching a condition of prosperity & happi- 

Nations at Fort Schuyler, 178S, and on many other occasions. See 
Turner, Phelps and Gor ham Purchase, pp. 114-5. 

' Peter Ot-se-quette. Died in Philadelphia, March, 1792, whither 
he had accompanied Mr. Kirkland at call of Gen. Pickering. Turner, 
Phelps and Gorham Purchase, p. 116. 



70 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

ness. Till now they still lack the spirit of 
work, & a taste for sedentary life — tilling the 
earth is burdensome to them, so that often 
they allow Americans to settle on & work 
their lands, provided they give them \ or half 
the yield, even their grist mill is managed on 
this footing by an American. As to the rest 
they are governed by chiefs so far as it suits 
them, they have no laws, & people cannot 
even eo to law with them before the U. S., so 
that contracts entered into between Americans 
& Indians have no other duration than the 
good pleasure of the latter, & it is even for- 
bidden by the U. S. to make any contracts 
with them. 

We left this morning from the mill by the 

Oneida Castle for Old Oneida,^ another Indian 

town, being drenched by a torrent of 

Monday 5th ^ , . tt 1 • 

ram ; reached Whitestown m Herki- 
mer Co. at Samuel Layard's,^ & were obliged 
to halt on account of the rain. 

' See Appendix G. 

2 Now Lairdsville, settled in 17S8 by Samuel Laird, from Massa- 
chusetts. He kept a log tavern there. — Jones' Oneida County, p. 717. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 7 1 

Left at 9, & arrived at Whitestown. The 
chief article of exportation of this place & 
neighborhood is Per lash, A Mr. Tuesday 
Jones makes 20 tons a year with 2 **^® *^*^ 
men. It sells in New York from 50 to 60 £ the 
Ton. They reckon from 60 or 70 to 100 
bushels of ashes pr. acre, and it takes 700 
bushels to make a ton of Perlash. Whites- 
town has been settled for 6 years, a mile from 
the Mohoc River — it has some very good 
houses, & the look of prosperity. Each family 
makes enough sugar for its own use, but the 
residue of the Mapple is burned for Potash. 
They value an acre of land in the neighbor- 
hood at 20 3, & 6 or 7 Miles distant it can be 
bought for I Dollar. 

We left there for the Mohoc River passing 
very rich ground, & a number of quite neat 
settlements. We slept at the house of Mayer, 
a German. 

N.B. All these settlements are made by 
Germans & pass by the name of German 
Flatts. 



72 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

We turned aside from the river to go to 
Cooperstown, travelled through the woods, 
Wednes- saw much Mapple, etc., & several new- 
day, 7th settlements ; we lost our way through 
the stupidity of people who do not know the 
road within two miles of their homes, we were 
obliged to stop at Olderdorff' to have our 
horses shod, & could go only 3 miles further 
to a German's, Frederick Edick.^ 

We left early, but again lost our way, and 
made at least a 12 miles detour, so we had 
Thurs- gained but 8 Miles when we arrived at 
day, 8. QoW. Hark's,^ II miles from Coopers- 
town & I Mile from Lake Otsego. 

We reached Cooperstown at 3 o'clock, & 
after having brushed off the mud, we went to 
see Mr. Cooper.^ We found him both frank 

' Probably Orendorf — an original patentee, who had lot No. 39 on 
the South side of the River. 

^ Of the Editch — or Edick — family, four were patentees, one in Con- 
rad Frank's patent, the South line of which ran five miles South of 
the River ; and two others in Staley's first and second tracts ; the 
former being the first tract South of the German Flats, and the latter 
five miles South of the first, now Columbia P. O. Conradstown is 
now Columbia. See Benton's History of Herkimer Co., p. 130, 145. 

^ Perhaps Hart. 

* See Appendix F. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK, Ijgi. 73 

& sincere, a man of attainments & of a very 
sound judgment ; the place where he Hves is 
situated at the outlet of Lake Otsego, 4 years 
ago there was only forest, now he counts 30 
families who live in wooden houses, among 
whom are all the mechanics necessary for 
commencing a settlement, he has already had 
a Court house built, a Gaol, &c. 

He reckons 25 bushels of wheat to the acre, 
& 3800 inhabitants on his lands, he has bought 
from his farmers 70,000 Livres of sugar at 
from 4 to 7 pence the Livre. 

There is 34 Miles Land Carriage from 
Cooperstown to New York, 18 from Lake 
Otsego to the Mohoc, & 16 from Schenectady 
to Albanie. The cost of transport of 2000 lbs. 
is in winter 3 Livres., in summer 5 Livres. 
He can go down the Susquehanna from his 
place with bateaux of ten tons. He has 
between 90 & 100,000 acres which he sells 
from I D'' to 203 the acre, giving 10 years 
credit, & receiving an annual interest of 7 
pt. In selling his lands he is careful to re- 
serve at certain distances in the centre of the 



74 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

settlements formed, a square of looo acres — 
he has 6 like that. He will send to Philad^ 
this autumn cattle to the vale of 1 700 £. 

An Irishman has 40,000 acres, 44 miles from 
Schenectady, North of the Mohoc, which Mr. 
Cooper thinks he can buy for 4 ^ the acre. 
They are exempt from a due elsewhere paid to 
the State of New York by the name of Quit 
Rent, which is 2/6 o sterling for 100 acres 
annually, but which can be discharged by pay- 
ing 14 years in advance, or 175 L. Stg.^ for 
the 100 acres. 

' The currency of New York at the time these Journals were 
written was usually expressed in pounds, shillings and pence, 
although the Dollar — as represented by the Spanish Dollar then 
in circulation — was also much used as a money of account. The 
pounds, shillings and pence here, however, were but little more 
than half as valuable as the English monies of the same names, 
owing to the depreciation of the standard from frequent issues of 
Colonial paper money. In New York the value of the "pound" 
had become definitely fixed at $2,50, eight shillings being thus 
equivalent to a dollar. 

In these records, therefore, where amounts are expressed in 
pounds, shillings and pence, reference is had not to English cur- 
rency, but to "New York Currency." See page 64. L. C. R. 



James Wilson 
James Wilson 



Wm Bingham 

R. L. Hooper 

Daniel Cox & 

others 



NOTES. 

6891 [acres] 
7141 



14032 
13741 

4271 
29,812 



Along the Sus- 

quehannah be- 

) tween the Great 

Bend & Owegy. 



James Wilson asks 4 Dollars per acre. 

N.B. The sugar culture has been generally bad in 
the year 1791 on account of the bad season of snow 
and cold that they had in these quarters as late as 
April. 

In the woods when there is a dense fog in the 
morning, one may be sure of a fine day, & of heat. 

The fog ordinarily dissipates towards 8 or 9 o'clock 
in the morning, then the sun breaks through & there 
is fine weather for the rest of the day. 

The Maple always grows in a rich soil, even on a 
somewhat marchy land, and likes generally to grow 
beside the Beech tree. 



75 



76 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

N.D. There is at Canundaugvvay a man settled for 
a year who has raised from 55 acres 1500 bushels of 
wheat. 



Friends' Settlement : 60 families, 378 souls. Uni- 
versal friend \ mile from the Lake, thence to Geneva 
on Lake Seneque or Canadesago ; there are some 20 
families, the Indians bring in their peltries & change 
them for merchandise, blankets, etc. 

From Geneva to Cannadogway 16 miles, swamps, 
much mapple, but no water, bad road, at 4 miles from 
Cannadogway in the loth township of the Sec'* range, 
a Capt" Wells, fine farm, the greater part of the town- 
ship belongs to Gen' Shippen, father-in-law of Capt. 
Wells. 

Perl Ash. 

60 to 70 up to 100 bushels of ashes per acre, & 700 
bushels to make a ton of Perl Ash or 2000 lb. sells 
at New York from 50 to 60 £,. 



VERMONT JOURNAL, 

SEPTEMBER, 
1791. 



77 



ITINERARY. 



Route from Bennington to Burlington Bay. 



Bennington 




Mr. Dewey. 




Shaftsbury 


7 miles 


" Galusha. 




Arlington 


7 — 


" Merwins. 


tn 


Sunderland 


4 — 


" Seamon. 




Manchester 


4 — 


" Allis. 





Dorset 


5 — 


" McMarsters. 


-a 



Harwich 


7 — 


" Gerrits. 



- b/5 


Danby 


6 — 


" Antony. 




Wallingsford 


7 — 


Mrs. Hulls. 




Clarenden 


3 — 


Esq"" Smith. 




Rutland 


7 — 


Mr. Williams. 


H 


Pittsford 


10 — 


Mr. 




Middlebury 


18 — 


Col' Shapman. 




Middlebury Falls 4 — 


Mr. Demon 




Vergennes 


13 — 


Col. Brosh. 





Charlotte 


13 — 


Mr. Riches. 


<u >, 


Burlington 


13 — 


Col' Keys. 


to tl 
bel 


The whole 


128 miles. 


•0 




79 





8o 



JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 



Route from Burlington Bay to Hartford in Con- 
necticut. 

Jerico lo miles L' McCartney. 

Montpellier 30 — Col' Davids 

Williamstown 12 miles Judge Paine. N.B. 

No public house. 

Lt Durkee. 

Cap' Morse. 

The Ferry. 

Holden. 

Gen' Enos. 

West. 

Man's 

Mr. Butterfield. 
Wed« Taylor. 
Mr. Gunn. 
Mr. Walner. 
Mr. Steens. 
Mr. Hitchcock. 
Mr. Fred"^ Bull. 
Mr. Richards. 

Tyler. 

Mr. Smith. 
Mr. Benjamin. 
" Penfield. 
" Read. 
" Webs. 
Wid'^ Heberlin. 
Mr. Hyard. 



Royalton 




21 — 


Sharon 




10 — 


Hartford 




10 — 


Dartmouth Coll^^ 


4 — 


Hartland 




9 


Windsor 




9 — 


Charleton 




18 — 


Waalpoole 




18 


Westmorle 




6 


HinsdiU 




17 miles. 


Montaign 




20 — 


Hatley 




15 — 


West Springfield 


20 — 


SofTfield 




10 — 


Hartford 




18 — 


Middletown 




15 — 


Northford in 


Brand- 






ford 


16 


New Haven 




10 


Stratford 




15 


Fairfield 




9 


Nortwork 




12 


Stamford 




10 


Ray 




12 


Kingsbridge 




16 


New York 




15 

381 
128 

795 


T. 


otal 


1304 miles. 



w 



JOURNAL. 

/% / E left Albany in the afternoon & slept at 
New City or Lansingburgh at Piatt's 
Inn, lo miles from Albany, we went Sunday the 
alon^ the North River all the way, ^5^\°fSep- 

fc" •' ' tember 

passing through a rich well-tilled [1791] 

country inhabited by Hollanders who still pre- 
serve their ancient neatness in their houses & 
their garments, although their language has 
already become much changed. 

N.B. All the lands on both sides of the 
river belong to Mr. Van Rensselaer, alias Pa- 
troon, for 25 square miles. 

From Lansingburgh to Bennington is 30 
miles, there are settlements all along Monday 
the way, lands mediocre, many hills 2^^^- 

and stony ground. 

At Bennington very comfortable at Duis. 
This place is quite a country town. 

The State of Vermont is divided into town- 
81 



82 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

ships of 6 miles square, divided among 56 pro- 
prietors, so that each has something more than 
400 acres — which is called a Grant. The Leg- 
islature never gives more than one to an indi- 
vidual, to prevent undue influence, & to encour- 
age population. 

Lands in Bennington township sell at from 
15 to 25 D''' pr. acre. 20 bushels of wheat an 
acre is considered a good yield. 

From Bennington to Shaftesbury 7 miles, all 
inhabited, from there to Arlington at Merwin's 
Tuesday 7 "^iles — a good public house ; from 
27th. there to Manchester 8 miles at Allis', 

good tavern, the land good but mountainous & 
stony, a good harvest is 20 to 25 bushels of 
wheat an acre. We made the acquaintance of 
a Mr. Meinders who has a store & a Mr. Smith 
— these gentlemen told us that lands were sell- 
inof in this neiofhbourhood as higrh as 20 Dolls, 
the acre. 

Passed through the township of Dorset 5 
Wednesday mil^s, Harwich 7 miles, Danby 6 miles, 
28th. where we dined sufificiently well at a 

Mr. Antony's — this man has sold his farm of 



VERMONT JOURNAL, Ijgi. 83 

60 acres at 19^ Dlr. the acre, thence to Wall- 
ingford 7 miles to Mrs. Hull's, a good widow's 
where we were comfortable & found two orood 
beds. 

Passed through Clarendon to Rutland, we 
stopped on the way at the house of a Thomas 
Rice, whom we met in the Genesee Thursday 
country, where he had bought 400 ^9th. 

acres at i Dlr. pr. acre with the intention of 
settling there. We found there a good farm, 
land good & well tilled & a new house not even 
finished. It is astonishing to see a man 50 years 
old who has spent the best part of his life in 
clearing his land & enhancing its value, leaving 
it all just as he begins to enjoy the fruits of his 
labor, in order to bury himself anew in the for- 
est, & expose himself to all the difficulties of 
forming a new settlement ! But it is usually 
the case with Americans, beginning quite poor 
they buy a few acres in a new country for al- 
most nothing ; when after 8 or 10 years of rug- 
ged toil they have augmented the worth of 
their lands, they find themselves with a numer- 
ous family, & their little territory, however 



84 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

valuable it may be, does not suffice to support 
them. Then they sell at a very high price, & 
so gain a sufficient sum to buy in the Genesee, 
where the lands are cheaper, three times the 
quantity, enough to maintain & establish around 
them a dozen children. 

Rutland is quite new, but agreeably situated. 
we made two good acquaintances, the Sheriff 
Mr. Sawyer, & Mr. Walker, the former gave 
me the enumeration of the State of Vermont, 
which reaches 85,708 souls. Rutland County 
15,579. Bennington 12,708. We left there 
for Pitsford 10 miles. 

Left for Middlebury 18 miles, where a Mr. 
Atley with some others from Canada is build- 
Friday '"^^Z ^ grain distillery. This estab- 
30th. lishment will cost them 5,000 Dl" be- 

fore it is going. As this country is far from 
any market they expect to get grain cheap ; 
Hence to Middlebury Falls is 4 miles, there 
are two roads to Vergennes, we were so un- 
lucky through the stupidity of other people as 
to take the worst. We found ourselves on the 



VERMONT JOURNAL, Ijgi. 85 

bank of Ctter Creek without a Pontoon for 
crossing. After being detained two liours, we 
found at last a boat in which we got over, our 
horses havinsf to swim. Nii^ht comino: on, we 
had to pass the night in a poor log house, 
happily we found kind people there who gave 
us of their best. 

We breakfasted at Vergennes, a new settle- 
ment, & pursued a road scarcely practicable to 
Riches in Charlotte Township where Saturday 
we resolved to stop, Mr. Boon's horse ^ ^ct. 
having fallen with him in a hole where he cut 
himself. 

By the laws of Vermont it is not permitted 
to travel on this day, but we risked being 
arrested, & started for Burlington Sunday 
Bay, where happily we arrived in the ^nd. 

afternoon at Col. Keys. He is obliged to keep 
tav^ern by the situation of the place, is truly 
amiable, has been well educated & has many 
attainments. We are very comfortable at his 
house, & very glad to spend some days here to 
refresh ourselves & recover from the fatiofues 



86 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

& the bad roads we have just come through. 
Burlington is very pleasantly situated on Lake 
Champlain which there makes a little bay. 
All the other settlements are new, but people 
begin to live at their ease. The soil is very 
rich, particularly for growing wheat & maize, 
they harvest of the former so much as 40 
bushels, but more generally from 20 to 30 
bushels the acre, of maize up to 70 bushels. 
Their greatest traffic is with Canada, they 
sometimes supply this province with grain, & 
principally with cattle, & receive in return 
European products but the English do not 
permit the importation of anything manufac- 
tured. 

When a canal shall have been cut between 
Skeensborough & the North River, which will 
be only 6 miles long, & which they have offered 
to make for 40,000 Livres, all the exports of 
Vermont will come to New York, but the 
opinion is that Canada, in order not to lose 
this branch of commerce, will cut on her side 
a canal from St. Johns to Chamblee, which 
will be 12 miles lonof, but which is easier to 



VERMONT JOURNAL, Ijgi. 8/ 

build than the other, since use can be made of 
Little River which flows into the Sorrel River 
below the rapids ; thus Vermont will find her- 
self between two markets & will derive a great 
advantage from the activity of her neighbours. 

The English still retain on Lake Champlain 
two posts in the territory of the United States. 
One commanded by a Capt" at Pointe du fer 
in the State of New York, the other on the 
Island of North Hero in Vermont, where a 
Serg' is stationed with 12 men. There is be- 
sides a brig of 16 guns on the Lake. 

By the last census the State of Vermont 
contains 85,708 souls, it is divided into 7 
counties, & each county into a number of 
Townships of 6 miles square. There are no 
great land holders as in the Southern States. 
The legislature has always believed it was 
its policy to grant only a small number of acres 
to any one person, for the greater preservation 
of equality, & preventing too great individual 
influence. This seems to me one reason that 
the lands have risen to a price so high that 
they are sold from 10 to 20 DP' an acre, and it 



88 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

would not even be possible to buy a large 
quantity at that rate. The largest land- 
owner in the State is a Gen' Allen in Chit- 
tenden County Colchester Township who has 
about 120,000 acres. Gov' Chittenden 30,000 
acres. 

There is in the whole State a considerable 
number of Mapple Trees, but the people do 
not seem to me to be persuaded of the advan- 
tage they might gain from this tree ; in the 
Southern parts where the settlements are 
older, & the land almost all cleared, the people 
have cut down almost all the trees, keeping 
only a small quantity necessary for their own 
consumption, In the North, where there is 
more forest, the quantity is more consider- 
able, but no more prized than towards the 
South. However as these parts are too distant 
from all markets, people could never raise 
more grain than they need for their own use, 
& will consequently be restricted to grazing & 
cattle, which may lead them to make sugar, 
since in cutting all trees except the Maple, 
the pasture is excellent, & much hay can be 



VERMONT JOURNAL, lygi. 89 

made, but experience has shown that the ground 
is so Hght here, that when the Maples stand 
alone the least wind uproots them, an incon- 
venience for which a remedy should be sought. 
They also say that in these mountains the 
depth of the snow prevents their gathering sap 
at the proper time, that towards the South 
however one man makes 250 lbs. Finally the 
chief reason for not making sugar is that they 
have no home market, & that the price of 
transportation by land is too dear, for the same 
reason the kettles & other utensils are so 
hard to get, but to me it does not appear im- 
probable that in forming an establishment in the 
middle of that part of the State where is the 
most Maple, that should furnish the inhabitants 
with the necessary utensils, & that should buy 
their sugar for ready money, they might be 
induced to cultivate the trees & gather enough 
sugar & at a sufficiently reasonable price as to 
leave a mediocre profit, especially if navigation 
is opened from Skeensborough to the North 
River which would greatly lessen transportation 
charges. 



90 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

N, B. There are in the State of Vermont, 
especially to Northward, considerable mines of 
iron ; several forges have already been built at 
Tinmouth, Wallingford & Fairhaven. 

We waited at Burlington to rest the horses, 
& ourselves as well from our fatigues. The 
The 3rd, weather moreover was bad & the 
4th, & 5th. blacksmith had no charcoal for shoe- 
ing our horses. 

We left Burlington at 11 o'clock for J erico 
on the Onion River 10 miles. In the afternoon 
Thursday ^^ crossed the river, & went to pay 
^^^- a visit to the Governor of the State, 

Thomas Chittenden living in the Township 
of Williston. He received us without cere- 
mony, in the country fashion. He is a man of 
about 60 years, destitute of all education, but 
possessing good sense, & a sound judgment, 
which at once put him at the head of affairs 
when the States of New York and New 
Hampshire disputed between themselves the 
territory of Vermont. It is chiefly to him that 
the State owes her present Government. He 



\ 



VERMONT JOURNAL, I^gi. 9 1 

related to us at much length the history of the 
revolution & how much he had contributed to it, 
was not ashamed to say that when he placed 
himself at the head of those who wished a 
separation from the State of New York, he 
scarcely knew how to write. Born in the State 
of Connecticut, he still retains the inquisitive 
character of his compatriots, & overwhelms 
one with questions to which one can scarcely 
reply. He is one of the largest & best 
farmers of the State, & is believed to own 
40,000 acres beside a considerable number of 
horned cattle. His house & way of living 
have nothing to distinguish them from those 
of any private individual but he offers heartily 
a glass of Grog, potatoes, & bacon to anyone 
who wishes to come and see him.^ 

We left for Col- Davids in Orange County, 
township of Montpelier, following the Onion 
River. This river which runs from Friday, 
East South East to W.N.W. will 7th. 

never be of much consequence for transporta- 
tion, being interrupted by rapids from time to 

' See Chipman, Life of Governor Chittenden. 



92 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

time. The Road is much better, compared 
with that along Lake Champlain, but while 
crossinof the chain of the Green Mountains 
one must continually ascend and descend. 

We left Col! Davids for Judge Paine's in 
Williamstown 12 miles, road extremely bad, & 
Saturday constantly ascending — on arriving at 
^^^- his house, we found ourselves quite 

on top of the mountains. He had the kind- 
ness to ask us to stay in his log house, which, 
though made of trees piled one on another, 
has every convenience that can be had in such 
a dwelling, a thing one rarely finds in these 
regions, the Americans often contenting them- 
selves with living in the kitchen with their 
people. His wife is pretty, amiable, & well 
bred, and made the time pass very agreeably. 

NOTES. 

Dartmouth Coll.. Pres- Wheelock — Woodward — 
150 students — remaining 4 years for 100 to 150^^ 
everything included. 

Gen'l Enos a frank unceremonious man, had only 
water to offer us, had travelled everywhere in the 
U. S. — Conversation about maple trees — sells from 
5-8 pence the livre. 



VERMONT JOURNAL, IJ^I. 93 

Windsor. Legislature. Printer. Dr. Green sends 
much potash to N. Y. 400 tons this summer. 

Waalpoole falls. Mr. Butterfield, acquaintance 
with Mr. Powldon. Small towns very neat along the 
Connecticut River, roads mediocre but land well 
tilled. Superb orchards, a worm eats the fruit. 

Springfield (West) Mr. Stebens. 



A JOURNEY WITH MR. BOON 

THROUGH THE FOREST. 

April, 1792. 



95 



Notes of a yourney through the Forest, Under- 
taken April 2 2, 1792, with Mr. Boon from 
Otego Creek} 

[With Map.] 

WE left on the morning of Sunday the 
22 April, followed Lake Schuyler,' 
thence by Coenraadstown ' to the Mohowk 
River to Capt. Meyers^ a little above the 
German flatts.^ 

' The Otego Creek rises a few miles South of Schuyler's Lake, in 
the western part of the town of Hartwick. Otsego Co., and enters the 
Susquehanna about midway between the villages of Oneonta and 
Otego. 

Its Indian name was " Adiga," (see Sir Guy Johnson's pen and 
ink map, 1771). All that country was less absolutely wild than is 
generally imagined. In 1792 there was probably more or less settle- 
ment on the Otego. — Paid Fenimore Cooper, 

Formed from Unadilla in 1796 — now Oneonta. Settlers were in 
this vicinity before the Revolution. — Hough's Gazetiee7-, p. 537. 

For interesting contemporary accounts of this region, of Judge 
Starring and Col. Colbreath, see Seymour. 

"^ In the town of Richfield. 

^ At what is now called Orendorff's Corners, in East part of the 
town of Columbia, Herkimer Co. — P. F. C. Conrad Orendorff, an 
early settler. — Hough's Gazetteer, p. 336. 

•* "Conrad's" and "Mayers" were well known places in their 
day.— Z>. E. W. 

'" German Flats, on South bank of the Mohawk, a fine intervale 
along the river. Formed as a district of Tryon Co., March, 1772. 
John Mayers, who kept the first inn, was among the early settlers. — 
Hough's Gazetteer, p. 337. 

7 97 



98 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

At Whitestown \ thence to Fort Stanix % to 

the house of the Sheriff of the County of Herke- 

mer, Col'- Colbrath,'^ to whom I had a 
23rd, 

letter from Baron Steuben, we crossed 

the Mohowk two miles above Fort Stanix & 

arrived in Fonda's Patent N°- 61 at Thomas 

Wright's Surveyor.^ 

There are in Fonda's Patent 40,000 acres 

which are divided among 6 proprietors ; the 

principal ones are Gov'- Clinton, Floyd, Taylor, 

Fonda, etc. They have already disposed of 

15,000 acres, several lots are leased 02it forever, 

on the following- terms : 

1 Now Whitesboro. Settled in 1784 by Hugh White, of Con- 
necticut. The great central point of the whole region up to 1793-4. 

'^ Fort Stanwix. Erected in 1758 at "the great carrying place," 
now Rome. 

^ He was Captain in Sullivan's Expedition of 1779. Later first 
Sheriff of Herkimer Co. — and also of Oneida County, on its for- 
mation in 1798. His house was on the road leading from what is 
now the business portion of Rome to Stanwix P.O., about two miles 
from Rome and one from Stanwix, at the point where the Inland 
Canal was locked into the Mohawk. — D.E. W. 

■* In 1789 Ebenezer and Thomas Wright, brothers, settled on lots 
60 and 61 Fonda's Patent, about three miles northerly of Rome, just 
East of the Mohawk, and about due North of Col. Colbrath. Eben- 
ezer was father of the celebrated engineer and surveyor Benj. 
Wright, connected with the construction of the Erie Canal. Thomas 
was father of Moses Wright (another surveyor). That locality has 
ever since been known as " Wright Settlement." — D. E. IV. 



Bourse throuh the forest, undcrtahen 

BY %ioHN L,INCHLAEN AND 
^£RRIT SiOON, FROM QtBQO CR£EK, 

SpRIL 1192 

[by LM TAYLOR Esq. of UTICA.N.Y.] 



^.Srn 




FOREST JOURNEY, I7g2. 99 

Nothing to be paid the first 5 years, then an 
annual toll of 18 bushels of wheat for each 100 
acres to be delivered in Albany. The Lands 
are generally of the best quality, not very hilly, 
& with fine timber. Beech, maple, Elm, bass- 
wood, birch, but scarcely any pine, there is no 
mill on the Patent — the nearest is at Fort 
Stanix. 

We left with the surveyor Wright, for the 

S. West corner of the 2000 acres that 

24th. 
Mr. Boon has bought of Mr. Cooper,^ 

we crossed these lands from the S. W. to N.E. — 

' " The Mappa Tract" lies Westerly of West Branch P.O., and the 
West branch of the Mohawk River runs through its North-East part. 
That is the tract where the party went April 24, after leaving Thomas 
Wright's. The northerly line of the Mappa tract is the Ava town 
line ; the party went to its South-west corner. In book 7, of Deeds, 
P- 36, (1799) the sale of the above lands to the Holland Land Com- 
pany was recorded. In 1822 Clift French, a surveyor, subdivided the 
tract into sixteen lots. In subsequent deeds it is variously called the 
" Mappa tract," the " Boon tract," and the "Cooper tract," as all 
these men were connected with it, and hence "land bought by Boon 
of Cooper." — D.E. IV. 

Col. Adam G. Mappa — a Dutch exile, who in the struggle with 
the house of Orange had commanded a body of Patriot troops but who 
after the revolution of 1786 expatriated himself and settled in 
America. He fixed his residence in New Jersey for about six years, 
but removed to Trenton, N. Y., with his family in 1794. Sometime 
afterwards he was chosen successor to Mr. Boon as Agent of that pur- 
chase of the Holland Company. 



100 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

they are of the best quality, very level, fine 
timber, beech, some maple, Butternut, bass- 
wood, Elm, birch, some hemlock. We camped 
beside quite a large creek that we thought to 
be a branch of the Mohowk.^ 

We found that the Creek where we had 
passed the night flowed into another creek run- 
nine from West to East ; finding noth- 
25th. 

ing marked on the map we did not 

know where we were, so we resolved to go down 
the creek to reconnoitre, we soon perceived that 
they were different branches of the Mohowk ; 
After a trying march of 12 miles along the 
creek which was sometimes hemmed in with 
steep rocks on both sides,^ we arrived in 
Matchin's patent, where the land becomes more 
level & better ; A part of this Patent has been 

' This route would bring the party near or to the West branch of 
the Mohawk, just West of West Branch P.O., before reaching which 
the river runs from West to East with small streams putting in near 
that point.— Z>.i5'. W. 

* This describes the West Branch of the Mohawk, with high rock 
on each side : just East of West Branch P.O. the " East Branch," of 
the Mohawk comes in, then the river is joined at " Hillside " by 
"Lansing's Kill." The party goes down the stream until Mat- 
chin's Patent is reached. There were seven or eight of his patents ; 
but the words " sold to a Mr. Deane " identify this. — DM. W 



FOREST JOURNEY, I'jg2. lOI 

sold to a Mr. Deane, and he has just re-sold 

450 acres for / 250. 

Followed the North line of Fonda's Patent 

from N° 9^ to the East line, which is nothing 

but a succession of steep hills, brush- 

26th 
wood, Hemlock, all very bad ; as soon 

as one reaches Holland's patent,' one finds a 
level rich ground, adorned with the most mag- 
nificent forest, we followed the road leading to 
Baron Steuben's patent,' and arrived there at the 



1 A little North of Westernville.— Z). E. W. 

'^ About 20,000 acres, lying within the township of Trenton, granted 
by the Crown to Henry Lord Holland, and sold by him. Divided 
into lots by Surveyor Wright. — Jones' Oneida County, p. 465. 

^ In 1786 the State of New York granted to Baron Steuben in 
recognition of his services, one quarter of a township, equal to 16,000 
acres, out of the territory recently purchased from the Oneida In- 
dians. It was erected into a separate township and was named for 
him. — Kapp, p. 578. 

After 1790 Steuben regularly spent some summer months on his 
farm, and the winters in New York. While on his last military 
service he chose the site for the old blockhouse at Salt Point (Syra- 
cuse) whither he went by Oneida Lake, and there met several hundred 
Indians — some friendly and some not — in council in the summer of 

1794- 

He died Nov. 28, 179S, and is buried on the summit of Starr's Hill, 
which stands like a watch tower in the township of Steuben, com- 
manding wide views of the surrounding country. ' ' Passing through 
Remsen we drove up the hill, and went through a field until we 
came to quite a bit of woodland surrounded by an old time rail fence, 
not far from which is the Baron's monument." — JM. S. F. 



102 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

house of one of his farmers [Superintendent] 
Sam'- Seizer/ The Baron's patent is of 16,000 
acres, but 6,000 are already part sold part leased 
out. he asks i Dir pr. acre, money down, & 
10 Shill^f at 5 years credit, already 15 families 
are established there. The Baron has 60 acres 
cleared of the best quality, which are tilled by 
three men that he hires by the year, on the 
mountain is an excellent situation for building, 
which commands a superb view, he has a saw- 
mill built on the Steuben Creek, but it is now in 
bad order, besides in summer there is scarcely 
enough water, otherwise the patent is generally 
good ground, but there is very little pine. 

Went through Holland's patent South of 
Steuben's, this Patent is superb, the land is 
extremely rich and everywhere inter- 
sected v/ith little brooks, & springs 
of soft water ; the land is level, there being 
only two hills, which are of no consequence. 
On account of not knowing who the proprietor 
is, this patent is not yet settled, however 

' Kapp, p. 591. The first settler in Steuben. He lived a little 
South East of Steuben Corners. — D. E. IV. 



FORE ST JO URNE V, I/'p2. 1 03 

some ten families have risked taking pos- 
session of the land near Nine Miles Creek. 
They say that there are 20,000 acres, & that 
Charles Fox now has the disposal of it. 

The Patent of Service ^ to the East is said to 
surpass even Holland's ; A little part that we 
have seen is not to be excelled by anything so 
far as land is concerned, but the greatest draw- 
back to this patent, as to all the others in these 
environs, is the lack of pine. Service' Patent 
is said to belong to an Irishman named Don- 
del now in New York. 

We gave up our surveyors, & took a road^ 
which led us to the Mohowk River some Miles 
above Fort Schuyler,' all this country 
begins to be inhabited, everywhere 
one hears the axe, everyone is busy felling 
trees ! 

We slept at Judge Starling's. ^ 

' Trenton.— Z*. E. IV. 

* As early as 1757 there was a good road on the North side of the 
Mohawk, through the town of Schuyler. (See Benton's History of 
Herkimer County'). The party doubtless took that road. — D. E. W. 

^ Now Utica. 

■* Judge Staring lived near Staring's Creek where grist and saw 
mills once stood, and which flows into the Mohawk South of West 



104 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

We descended the Mohowk, forded the 
great Canada Creek, the current very rapid, 

saw Fort Herkemer, Fort Plain, &; 

arrived in the eveninaf at Roseboom's 
Ferry.^ 

We left for Johnstown 4 miles from the 

Mohowk. This town had for its founder Sir 

William Johnston who so particu- 
30. 

larly distinguished himself in the 

revolution by his attachment to the Court. 

The surrounding lands are mediocre, but 4 

miles from the town, towards the North 

East, they become barren as far as Romain 

Mills,^ 1 1 miles off. we arrived that night 

Schuyler P. O. He was born at the German Flats. He was the first 
judge of Herkimer County. He was probably identical with Henry 
Staring, delegate from Montgomery County to the State Convention 
of 1788. — Eenton, pp. 184-193. 

He was famous during the Revolution for his intrepidity and strong 
mind and character. He fought at Oriskany, and was later Colonel 
of Tryon County Militia. — Tracy iVotices, Oneida County. See also 
Seymour, p. 67. 

^ Roseboom's Ferry across the Mohawk, about one mile East of 
the present Palatine Bridge Station, identical with the one often 
spoken of as Van Alstyne's Ferry, connected the road from Stone 
Arabia with the one leading to the mills on Canajoharie Creek, thence 
on to Cherry Valley. — S. L. F. 

- Now Shawville ; settled 1773, by Sir William Johnson. The 
mill property was confiscated during the war, and sold to a son of the 



FOREST JOURNEY, iyg2. 105 

at the house of a hunter, William Jackson ^ 
in the Mayfield patent. He took us the 
next day the i of May throuorh the 

^ ■> ^ May I. 

woods to see a tract of 10,000 acres 

of land situated near the Secondago River.' 

They do not know to whom these lands 
belong, though the soil is good, there is a 
quantity of Hemlock, some Beech & Maple, 
but though they are good lands, they do not 
approach those of Holland nor Service's. 
They are well watered, the Cranburry Creek 
runs through, & it is said a mill might be 
built there. — There are several settlements 
along the Secondago, which is, strictly speaking, 
only the Western branch of the North River. 
The navigation is made impracticable by the 
rapids. Very good land is found, & from 

Rev. Dr. Romeyn, who rebuilt and put it in operation, when it 
became known as Romeyn's Mills. It is in the center of the town of 
Mayfield, on Mayfield Creek, one-half mile South of Mayfield. A 
bridge was here before 1744. — History of Fulton County, p. 226. 

' " Jackson's Summit " is towards the northern end of the town of 
Mayfield, and was in the Mayfield Patent, though the bounds of the 
Patent were entirely different from those of the present town of that 
name. — S. L. F. 

The William Jackson here spoken of was an early settler in 
Mayfield, Fulton Co.— Z). E. W. 

'^ See Map of Fulton County. 



I06 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

30 to 40 3 per acre Is asked for Lots along 
the River.^ 

Returned to Jackson's — thence by Johnston 
2nd to Judge Veeder's.'^ 

Roseboom, Springfield, Cooperstown, & 
arrived at home in the evening, having 
made this day 50 miles. 



Navigation of the Mohawk River, 

A boat loading two tons can come up from 
Schenectady to Fort Stanix. At the little Falls, 
however, a few miles below the great Canada Creek, 
there is a portage of i mile, where they are obliged 
to unload the boat, & carry goods & boats by 
waggons. 

3 hands are required for a full loaded boat at 

3i^ each hand is £ g 

Portage at the little Falls i 

10 

' There were two main trails, one from Johnstown through Rice- 
ville to Dennie Hollow, Cranberry Creek and so to the Upper 
Sacondago ; the other from Johnstown to Sir William's Summer 
House Point. — History Fulton County, p. 225. 

^ Simeon Veeder was County Judge of Montgomery County in 
1802, and lived in the town of Mohawk. I know of no judge of that 
name in 1792. — S. L. F. 



EXPLORATION OF THE 

CAZENOVIA TRACT, 

OCTOBER, 1792. 



107 



JOURNAL. 

T LEFT Mr. Hovey's^ after breakfast, hav- 
ing with me a guide who assisted in 
surveying the land which I am to see. Friday 5th 
I followed the Cayuga road for three October, 
miles, and thence directed my course West,^ 
following the South line of the Twenty Town- 
ships. ^ I found the land good along the line, 
with some hills to cross but not bad ones, and 
arable to the tops : the timber was Beech, maple, 
basswood, white ash, Chestnut, Elm, and very 
little hemlock except along the brooks, of 
which I have crossed many. 

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon I arrived at 
the South West corner of Township N? 13^ 

' Gen. Benjamin Hovey came to what is now Oxford, in the 
autumn of 1790, built a log house on the present site of S. H. Farn- 
ham's store, and named the place for his native town in Massa- 
chusetts. See History of Chenango and Madisojt Counties. 

■ For the subsequent route, see map at page 142. 

^Or, "Governor's Purchase" See Hammond, Afadison County, 
p. 164. 

■• McDonough. — L.L, 

109 



no JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

which is the S.E. corner of the 15,000 acres of 
Watkins and Sacket/ thence I directed my 
course N. W., and after travelling a mile arrived 
at the bank of a brook where I encamped. 

We set off at eight o'clock, travelling N. W. 
and at ten o'clock crossed the Cayuga road ; 
Saturday ^^ ^^^ o'clock we arrived at the S. W. 
the 6th. corner of the 50,000 acres, During 
all the morning the land was generally good, 
some small Hemlock swamps, the rest beech, 
Maple, basswood, and white ash, with no 
streams. 

From the S. W. corner of the 50,000 acres 
our course was N. E., the land excellent and 
generally level, We encamped on the West 
side of Township N° 1 2} 

We travelled N. W. At 10 o'clock we 

crossed the Hoksilic^ Creek, which runs 

S. W. At noon we came to another 

Sunday 7th 

creek of considerable size ; half a mile 
further on we reached the corner of N°' 6 & 7, 
West line. All the morning the land was of 

'German. — L.L. ^ Pharsalia. — L.L. ^Otselic. 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, 17^2. Ill 

the best quality, — Maple, basswood, Cherry, 
Ash, Elm, & Beech. Crossing the creek we 
found a mountain to be climbed, but the land is 
capable of cultivation from the base to the 
summit, and along the creek are some fine 
flats. In the afternoon our course was N.E., 
the land hilly but of the best quality and with 
the best kinds of timber. We camped by a 
stream. 

After having made half a mile, we arrived at 
the East line of the Gore ; thence we went 
N. W., the land always the same. 

Monday 8th 

We came to the corner of Nos. ii & 

1 2. The land throughout of the best, but hilly. 

At 1 1 o'clock we arrived at the N. E. corner 
of the 50,000 acre tract ; during the morning 
the land was of the best, with much Tuesday 
Butternut timber ; from the Corner 9^'' 

our course was W. N. W. We arrived at even- 
ing on the Military [Lands] Line. 

Our course was N.E. \ E. through the best 
kind of lands ; At i o'clock we came to 



112 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

the Caneserogo Creek ; along the creek are 
black ash, & red elm, some bever dams, fine 
Wednes- meadow ground ; beside the creek is 
day, loth ^ swamp where there are Cyder 
[cedar], Pine, Balsam fir & Hemlock, we 
encamped beside the Creek. 

Our course was West through good land, 
near the line is a Creek which seems to issue 
Thursday ^^^"^ ^^e Road Township, and runs 
"^^ into N° lo of the Military [Lands] ; 

there is a mill seat near the line. We came to 
the Military [Lands] Line at noon, thence 
travelled N.N.E. ; arrived at the Lake where 
we encamped : situation superb, fine land. 

From the lake we travelled N. \ E. to the 
Genesee Road, through lands both good and 
Friday ^^*^' timber chiefly Oak and Poplar, 
i2th \Ye came to the Caneseroga Creek, 

there are 5 German families settled on the 
Creek, they are poor. On the other side of 
the creek is the Indian settlement.^ We ar- 

' Caneseraga, an ancient Tiiscarora Village site, is i^ miles North- 
East of Chittenango Village, where the Caneseraga Creek crosses the 
Seneca Turnpike. — Smith, Chenango and Madison Counties. 



Page of yournal 
Arrival at Owahgena Lake, Oct. nth, I'jg2 



n 



<* / ' V-' • ^^^ ^-^ ' 







CAZENOVIA TRACT, iyg2. II3 

rived at the house of John Denny ^ ; no bread, 
nor meat. 

Detained by the rain. Saturday, 

^ 13th 

Left by a path which brought us back to 

the Httle Lake, crossing- good lands. Sunday 

Encamped at night at the North Hne ^4*'' 
of N° i.^ 

Rain & fog all day— the sombre Monday 
weather prevented our directing our ^5*^ 

course. 

Followed the Line which crosses N° i 
from North to South, land bad, in general 
swampy, the rest Hemlock, beech, Tuesday 
birch, & some maple, plenty of ^^^'^ 

Creeks, this Line I imagine runs through the 
dividing waters of the Caneseroga Creek & 
Chenango Rivers — at four o'clock we came to 
the S. W. Corner. 

We traversed N° 5 ^ from the North West to 
the South East, lands good ; at noon we 

' An Indian who kept there the first tavern, and built the first 
frame house in 1800. — Hammond, Madison County, p. 662. 

''Nelson. 'Lebanon. — Z.Z. 



114 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

reached the Chenango River ; we went down 
the River, passing by the North East Corner 
Wednes- ^^ ^° ^'^ arrived in the North West 
day, 17th Corner of N? 9^ at the house of one 
Guttry^ who has been settled there for 4 
months. 

Left Guttry's by a road which leads to 
Thursday ^^ Unadilla, arrived at evening at 
'^^^^ Edminston. 

We traversed a part of N? 18^ and 17,^ 
Friday ^^^ arrived in the evening at Mr. De 
^9^*^ Villars.^ 

Saturday R^gted. 
20th 

Sunday \^^i\. De Villars', and arrived at 

21^*^ Birch's '' on Charlotte River. 

' Smyrna, L.L. '^ Sherburne. — L.L. 

^ William Guthrie, from Litchfield, Conn., kept in 1793 on the 
place of this settlement the first tavern in the town, about two miles 
from the village of Bainbridge, on the farm now owned by Philo 
Kirby. — Hist, of Mad. and Chen, Cos. 

•* Brcokfield.— /..Z.. 

* Pittsfield, Columbus. — L.L. 

' Louis de Villars erected the first mill in Morris on Aldrich Creek. 
First settlement, 1773. — L.L. 

' By Van der Werken's Mills. He erected the first mill in 
Oneonta. — L.L. 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, I'jg2. 



115 



Passed through Harpersfield, and Monday 



arrived at Esquire More's/ 

Left M ore's and came to the widow 
Horsebrock's.^ 

Arrived at Ezopus. 

Arrived at Fishkill. 

Left with a chaloupe for New York. 



22d 



Tuesday 
23d 

Wednes- 
day 24th 

Friday 
26th 

Saturday 
27. 

^ John More, Roxbury, near Mooresville, settled 1790. — L.L. 

^ H asbrouck ? Perhaps the present village of Hasbrouck in Falls- 
burgh, Sullivan Co., said to have been settled by Germans before the 
Revolution. See Hough's Gazetteer, p. 646. 



ii6 



JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 





TRAVELLING EXPENSES. 






1792. 






Sept. 


24. For a tent 


£ 2, 13, — 




— For Hay & Oats . 


— 16 


. 9 




26 For Hay 


— , — 


, 6 




27 Passage from NrY'' to Ezopus 


3. 12 


— 




— Feed half way Ezopus . 


— , I 


, — 




— Sur Cingel 


. — , 6 


— 




— Ferry .... 


— , I 


— 




29 [Illegible] 


— , 8 


— 




— Ezopus, lodging at De Waal 


— , 8 


— 




— Woodstock — food . 


2 


9 




30 Shendeken — lodging 


— ! 6 


9 




— Breakfast .... 


— , 3 


— 




— Van Loo .... 


— > 3 


6 


Oct. 


I. Sq^ Moore — lodging 


— , 4 


6 




— Breakfast at Patchin's 


— , 3 


— 




— Glass & Blacksmith 


— , I 


I 




— Blacksmith 


— , 3 


- — 




2^ Mr. Johnston — lodging . 


— . 7 


8 




— Barret, breakfast 


— , 2 


6 




— Brumhall, oats & milk 


— , I 


6 




— Turnel. Hay & Rum 


— 1 I 


2 




3 Mr. Wattles's lodging etc. 


—> 7 


2 




— Mr. breakfast . 


— , 2 


10 




— Mercereau's Mills. 5olbs. mea 


— , 10 


— 




5 Mr. Hovey for 20 lb. beef 5** lb 


— , 8 


4 




— 10 lb. bacon i § lb. 


— , 10 


— 




— 2 lb. sugar 


— , 2, 


— 



£ 12, 7, 



CAZENOVIA THACT, iyg2. 



117 



Oct. 5. \ lb. tea . 

— Board & lodging 

— Baking bread . 

— for washing 
14 Caneseraga settlement for 

small pig 

— for a turkey 

— Feed for horses, lodging, & 

Rum & potatoes . 

18 N° 9 Mr. Guttry for provisions 

— Unadilla, corn. 

19 Edminston, board & lodging 

20 Hovey's man 16 days service 

at 4/6 a day is 

21 At Sleeper's for hay 

— Van der Werken's mills 

— At De Villars — washing 

22 At Birch's lodging . 

— Johnston Rum 

— Harpersfield Dr. Mack 

— To Joel Mack for the hire of a 

horse for 2 1 days 

— For shoeing a horse 

— Patchin's, board & oats 

23 Mr. Moore Lodging 

— At Ganze's Hay & milk 

— At the foot of the mountain. 

Hay 



£- 



I, 



2, 


6 


17, 


2 


4, 


— 


3, 


6 


12, 





8, 


— 


15, 


— 


12, 


— 


> 


6 


19. 


— 


12, 


— 


0, 


8 


2, 


6 


3- 


— 



2, 



1, I 

18, 6 

2, — 

3, 6 
8, - 

— . 9 

- 6 



£ i3> 14. 10 



ii8 



JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 



Oct. 24 Horseblock, Lodging 

26 Ezopus. DeWall, board & 
lodging 

— Ferry .... 

— Hay & Rum . 

— Poughkeepsie, food 

— Fishkill .... 

— Landing, Lodging . 

— Ferry .... 
29 Passage from Fishkill to N 

York .... 

For man & horses . 
Man's wages ... 



£ 13. 


14, 


10 


— , 


9. 


8 


-I, 


7. 
3. 
I, 
6, 
4, 
7, 
I, 


— 


. — , 


7 


. — , 


6 


— 


— 



4, — 



£ 29, 2, 7 
12, 7, — 



Travelling expenses to the Gore £ 41, 9, 7 
Travelling expenses back to 

Phila 4> 16, — 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, 17^2. II9 

NOTES. 

[Of Route from Esopus to Hovey's, Sept 29 
to Oct. 3.] 

/. 

Mr. van der Kemp, by taking more care to culti- 
vate & clean his grain than his neighbors, has sold it 
for a shilling the bushel more than his neighbours. 
He has sold it for "j /^ the bushel, weighing 64 
pounds, on the spot. 

2. 

The country from Ezopus to Little Shendeken is 
mountainous and stony, the land dry and unfruitful, 
and produces nothing but Oak and Chestnut, so it 
is hardly peopled except where in the intervales 
there are some tolerable pastures. Shendeken is in 
the Blue Mountains.' 

3- 
From Shendeken one passes the mountains, the 
road is bad & the country not capable of ever being 
cultivated ; even after crossing them the lands are 
only middling, and little inhabited till one reaches 
the Schohary Creek ° which empties into the Mo- 
howk. On this creek are fine flatts which have been 
inhabited for 40 years ; Consequently one sees 
beautiful meadows and well stocked orchards. Leav- 
ing Schohary one comes again to a new country, 
mountainous & stony, & scarcely inhabited. 

' N. W. corner town of Ulster County. — Gazetteer. 
2 Near Frattsville. L.L. 



120 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

4' 

Before arriving at Harpersfield, one crosses the 
Delaware,' 3 miles below its source — it is there only 
a little brook which one can step over. 



Harpersfield " is a mountainous country, stony in 
some places, but free from rocks, the hills are arable 
to their tops ; the land is good, beech, maple, bass- 
wood, etc. The weather is remarkably cold. The 
i^' October when I was there it was cold enough to 
freeze, and fifteen days before there had been snow. 
They say, however, that the climate is favourable to 
wheat, — which yields there even 30 bushels the acre ; 
— but that it will not admit of raising Maize. In its 
place they raise another kind of grain called Millet, 
which is said to be excellent for fattening pigs. 



Captain Kortright,^ proprietor of a township, 
leases his lands at £4/7 per 100 acres, the rent com- 
mencing the 5'.^ year. Before the rent begins, the 
farmers have the option of purchasing at 10 shillings 
an acre. 

' Near Stamford. L.L. 

'^ Named from Colonel John Harper. In the North-East corner 
of Delaware County. 

^ Laurence Kortright, patentee. Town next to Harpersfield. 
L.L. See Hough's Gazetteer of New York. 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, 17^2. 121 

7- 

There is not a month in the year when there is 
not frost at Harpersfield, especially in the valleys 
on the top of the mountains it is warmer. 

8. 

The inhabitants who live on the Susquehanna 
near the Unadilla, & on the road that leads from 
Kattskill to the Houliout' have just established 
among them a post which goes once a week from 
Mr. Wattles'" on the Susquehanna to Kattskill, & 
which returns to bring them letters & papers. 



The Road from Kattskill to the Susqueh^- was cut 
by order and at the cost of the State of New York, 
the distance is 90 miles, it is cut 20 feet wide. 

10. 

Mr. Mercereau's mills, — He can grind in 24 hours 
100 bushels of wheat. — Esopus stones will last 30 or 
40 years, they must be dressed 4 times a year. — 
Mr. Mercereau told me that in general the expenses 

' Oleout, a stream East of and tributary to the Susquehanna. See 
Map. 

^ At Wattles' Ferry on the Oleout an inn was opened in 1785 by 
Nathaniel Wattles. Shuman Wattles, afterwards Judge, came with 
two brothers in 1785 to the present town of Franklin, Delaware 
County. See Hough's Gazetteer, pp. 253-7. 



122 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

of the dam are as much as half the expenses of the 
mill. — He can saw in a day (i2 hours) 1500 feet of 
boards, which sell at 5 Dl?. or;^2 the 1000 feet. 

//. 

Mr. Hovey pays £l/io for clearing an acre, and 
the men who do the work have the ashes, — for 
which he gives 6 pence per bushel. 

Mr. Hovey has 2000 acres to sell in the Township 
No. II. He could let us have 8000 acres there. 

The contracts which he has made with Messrs. 
Watkins & Flint to survey their lands, are that they 
pay him 20 shillings per mile, then he is responsible 
for all expenses and sends the owners the survey, a 
Map and fieldbook. But as our lands are more in 
the neighborhood he will undertake to make the con- 
tract for less than 20 shill. The surveyor whom he 
employs is named Lock, who earns from 10 to 16 
shill. per day. 

14. 

To cut the road from Hovey's to Cayuga Lake, 
they pay 10 £ per acre ; the contractors then must 
cut it 2 rods wide, & make the necessary bridges. A 
wood road where a cart can pass costs £ 2 per mile. 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, I7Q2. 1 23 

The surveyors employed by Mr. Hovey are Nath : 
Lock of Westchester County & Walter Sabin who 
lives on the Susqueh : near J: Mercereau ; each sur- 
veyor has with him 5 hands, 2Chainmen 2 markmen 
& I to carry the provisions. — The surveyor when 
running the outlines is allowed 2 Dlrs. a day, when 
Lotting out 12 shill. a day. W. Sadin runs com- 
monly 5 or 6 miles a day. N. Lock 8-10 miles a 
day. Lock's hands have 10 Dlrs. a month. Sabin's 
hands have only 8 Dlrs. a month. Each hand is 
allowed a day 2 pounds of Beef or 1-1/2 pound of 
pork, 2 pounds of bread, & as much Chocolate or 
Tea as they can drink, as much Rum as they will 
carry, each party takes generally a Cask contain- 
ing 5 Gallons, we'll reckon that each man is allowed 
a Gill a day. Hovey buys a yoke of oxen (2 oxen) 
for 16 to 20 ^ & the pork 5 Dlrs. a hundred weight ; 
he sells the pork at a shill. a pound & the beef 5 
pence a pound. 

Each man that goes in the woods carries for a 
fortnight or 20 days provisions that is from 70 to 80 
weight, he walks then from 15 to 20 miles a day. 

16. 

Col] Smith' sells his lands as follows : quarter of 
Townships at 10 shill: an acre, single Lots from 10 to 

' William S. Smith, from Long Island — aid to Baron Steuben — 
married Abigail, only daughter of President John Adams, under 
whose administration he was Minister to England. Died in Smith's 
Valley in 1816. Hammond, p. 546. 



124 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

14 shillings an acre, in 3 equal payments the 1st, 2d 
& 3d year with an interest of 7 p.c'. 

From the Saltspring in the Onondaga Reservation 
they are to cut a road to Chenango in the 20 Town- 
ships, this road will traverse the Road Township ; 
by offering to assist the contractors they can be 
induced to take it by the place in the R.T.' where 
it is intended to make the principal Settlement, and 
by N" I, thence to [N°] 5 etc. 

18. 

From Scribner in N° 16 they have cut a road 
which leads to Tunnicliffs on the Butternut Road 
17 miles, they propose to continue this road across 
the Military Tract, passing by N? 10 and 11. 

ig. 

Mr. Cooper makes buyers pay for each deed 14 
shill. Mr. De Villars 11 shill. In giving a deed 
they make them sign the mortgage bound simple 
and bound in judgment.' 

20. 

They send from Ezopus to N. V^ Hemlock bark 
for tanning, it sells for 45 shill. the Cord, cost of 
transport 4 shill. 

' Road Township. 

* This means with a bond and confession of judgment. — L.L. 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, iyg2. 125 

21. 

The flatts at Old Schohary sell at present at 25 £ 
the acre. 

22. 

In Hardenberg's patent between Harpersfield, & 
Ezopus, where there is no other timber but Hemlock 
& very stony, the Lands sell at 10 shill. an acre. 
The widow Horsebroek at the foot of the Blue 
Mountains pays for very bad land 2 Dlrs. an acre. 

Information front Hovey about the 20 Tozvnships. 
N° 2. Bad, several Lakes. [Eaton. L. L. 
N° 3. Middling good. [Madison. L. L. 

N° 6. Said to be bad. [Georgetown. L. L. 

N° 7. Also bad, belongs to 

R. C. Livingston. [Otselic. L. L. 
N° 9 Is very good. [Sherburne. L. L. 

No 12 Reported stony, be- 
longs to Coll W"? 

Smith. [Pharsalia. L. L. 

"■ 20 Is chiefly settled, Col. 
Sanger had the 
care of it. [Sangersfield and 

Bridgewater. L. L. 
" 13 Stony, [McDonough. 

" 15 Belongs to Lawyer 

Cutting, [Norwich. L. L. 

" 1 1 Said to be the best of 

all. [Plymouth. L. L. 

" 14 Mr. Matlock. [Preston. 

2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, & 12 belong to Coll Smith, the first 
six are said to be generally good. 



126 JOURNALS OF JOHN- LINCKLAEN, 

W. S. Smith's Location or the triangle is divided 
into 4 Townships, they say it is not so good as the 
Gore' of Watkins & Flint — in general bad. they 
reckon that out of twenty acres there is one that is 
good. 

23- 

Kochburn's* terms of surveying, 20 shill. by the 
mile, then he finds hands & provisions & makes the 
returns, 20 sliill. a day, then the employer finds all 
the necessaries, or ;^ 6/10 or 7 ^ for every lOOO 
acres, then he finds everything, his calculation is to 
run 3 miles a day upon an average. 

24.. 

The merchants in Ezopus reckon 25 pCt upon all 
their goods including the freight, they give as long 
credit as people want, but they hive only 6 months 
credit by the merchants in New York, these whole- 
sale merchants reckon 10 or 12 pO. excluding the 
freight & Duties, at Auctions goods may be bought 
at 50 pC. under the value but for ready money. 

Mr. Edw. Livingston leases his lands out at 15 
bushels for every 100 acres for the first ten years, 

' See Map, p. 142. " The Gore" comprised the present towns of 
German, Pitcher, Lincklaen, DeKuyter, and the southern and larger 
half of Cazenovia. It was a strip left between the West line of the 
Twenty Townships and the East line of the Military Tract, the 
entire length of the Twenty Townships or "Governor's Purchase," 
slightly wider at the North than at the South. — See Hist. Chenango 
a7id JMaaison Counties. 

^ Probably Cockburn's. 



CAZENOVIA TRACT, 1 7^2. 



127 



beginning with the 4th, then forever for 20 bushels 
a year deliverable at the River ; he reserves a sixth 
of all the sales. 

Mr. Watkins has contracted to have a road cut 18 
feet wide, digging wherever it is necessary, & put 
logs where there are swamps & cleared of all incum; 
brances for;^3 a mile. 



Locker's 6 miles. 

Barrett's 7 '• 

Brunshall 9 " 

Smith's 9 " 

Wattle's 8 " 

Patchin's Tavern 3 miles over the Delaware 
Bridge. 




APPENDICES. 



129 




APPENDIX A. 

THEOPHILUS CAZENOVE. 

The old French family of de Cazenove was origin- 
ally from Guienne, and before that, family tradition 
says, from Spain. Towards the end of the sixteenth 
century the house divided into two branches. The 
elder remained on its ancestral soil, faithful to the 
Church of Rome ; the younger embraced the Re- 
formed religion, was expatriated after the Edict of 
Nantes, and established itself in Geneva, where 
some of its descendants still live. The relations of 
kinship, broken by one hundred and fifty years of 
religious persecution, were renewed in 1790. 

Theophilus Cazenove, first General Agent of the 
Holland Land Company in the United States, was 
of the Protestant branch of the family. He was 
born at Amsterdam October 13th, 1740, and died in 
Paris March 6th, 181 1. He was a grandson of the 
famous historian Paul de Rapin, Sieur de Thoyras, 
and great grandfather of Mr. Raoul de Cazenove, of 

131 



132 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

Lyons, France, to whose kindness the village of 
Cazenovia owes an interesting portrait of his an- 
cestor, and to whose work on Rapin de Thoyras we 
are indebted for these facts concerning him. 

The " Armorial de la Noblesse de France " further 
states that Theophilus Cazenove ' married at Haar- 
lem i6 October, 1763, Margaret Helen van Jever, 
of a noble Dutch family, whose father Volkert van 
Jever was burgomaster of Amsterdam, and whose 
mother Quirina Catherine, daughter of Johan van 
Sypestyn, " maitre hereditaire (veld-graaf) des forets 
pays de Cuijk," was niece of the Grand Pensionary 
of Holland, John de Witt.' 

' The " Cazenove who was Talleyrand's privy council and financier " 
was probably Theophilus. — See Memoires de Tallyrand. vol. i., p. 
232. In December, 1794, there were "two Cazenoves " in Phila- 
delphia. — h.A^-m%' History of Gallatin, Vol. I., p. 142; and "Life," 
p. 145- 

The woodland still spreading over part of the hill on the West 
side of Cazenovia Lake, near its foot, was always called by the older 
people the " Cazenove Woods." This is accounted for by notices in 
the Cazenovia Republican Monitor, April, 1S30, of " a sale of a 
wood lot of about 75 acres, part of Lot No. 47, 4th allotment. New 
Petersburgh," together with " Lots No. 24, and 25 of the town plot 
of Cazenovia as surveyed by Calvin Guiteau," by Arthur Cazenove, 
of the Kingdom of France. This property was doubtless inherited 
from his grandfather, the General Agent, who gave a power of at- 
torney to John Lincklaen, dated June 10, 1799, "when he was about 
leaving the United States of America," covering " two certain Lots 
or Tracts of Land situate in Cazenovia." 

'^ On the same authority, the American Cazenoves are equally de- 
scended from Pierre, the founder of the Protestant branch of Geneva, 
through his great grandson, Charles Antoine Cazenove, who came 
from that city in 1790, to the United States, married a Miss Hogan, 
and left many descendants. 



APPENDIX B. 

PAUL BUSTI. 

Paul Busti/ a native of Milan, Italy, and his wife 
Elizabeth May, born in Holland, daughter of Admiral 
May of the British Navy, came to Philadelphia in 
1794. With minds well cultivated and of good social 
position, they were welcomed as an addition to its 
society. After the return to Europe of Mr. Theo- 
philus Cazenove Mr. Busti became General Agent of 
the Holland Land Company and held that position 
until his death in 1824, when he was succeeded by 
John Jacob van der Kemp. 

' Penn. Mag. of Hist, ana Biog., vol. vii., pp. 107, 108. 



133 



APPENDIX C. 

IN THE ASSEMBLY, MARCH I, 1820. 
MEMORIAL OF PAUL BUSTI. 

No. 106. 

To the honorable the Legislature of the State of New- 
York in SeJiate and Assembly convened. 

The memorial of Paul Busti, of the city of Phila- 
delphi, most respectfully sheweth — 

That your memorialist is the general agent of the 
Dutch landholders, composing the association called 
the Holland Land Company, who, in virtue of privi- 
leges granted to them by law, have acquired and 
hold large tracts of land, in the district of country 
now comprising the counties of Genesee, Niagara, 
Cattaraugus, Alleghany and Chautauque. Various 
petitions having lately been presented to the legis- 
lature, from the inhabitants of those counties, pray- 
ing important changes in the present system of 
taxation, your memorialist, without presuming to 
call in question the justice or policy of any general 
regulations on this subject, which the legislature may, 
in its wisdom, deem it expedient to adopt, takes 

134 



APPENDICES. 135 

leave most respectfully to remonstrate against any- 
partial impositions, operating exclusively or un- 
equally, upon the lands of foreigners, acquired and 
held, like those of the Holland Land Company, 
under the faith of public acts of the legislature of 
the state of New York. 

That cases may be supposed, in which foreigners 
might so far abuse the privileges conferred on them 
by the public favor as to justify legislative inter- 
ference and control, it does not concern the individ- 
uals who compose the Holland Land Company, to 
deny; for your memorialist feels authorised, not 
only to repel, on their behalf, every charge of this 
nature, as utterly destitute of foundation ; but with 
the boldness of truth, to assert that, as their landed 
acquisitions in this country, originated in an early 
and persevering attachment to the cause of American 
freedom and independence, so those acquisitions 
have hitherto been made eminently subservient to the 
advancement of the public interests and prosperity. 

At an early stage of the American revolution, 
when the struggle for liberty and independence was 
yet doubtful, the Dutch merchants, who afterwards 
formed the Holland Land Company, warmly espous- 
ing the cause of this infant republic, came forward, 
at every hazard, to furnish her with supplies, in 
order to relieve the wants of her armies. The meri- 
torious exertions of these individuals, cannot be 
forgotten by the surviving patriots of the revolution, 
nor will the faithful records of history, cease to attest 
them to posterity. 



136 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

The government of the United States, in the en- 
joyment of the blessings of peace and independence, 
being soon happily enabled, by a wise and regular 
system of finance, to satisfy the demands of their 
public creditors, the capital of part of the debt thus 
contracted with the merchants of Holland, was 
thrown into their hands at a moment when the con- 
vulsions and revolutions of Europe, threatened to 
subvert the whole fabric of civil society. Under 
these circumstances, they determined to reinvest 
these funds in American lands, and during the course 
of the years 1792 and 1793, the uncultivated wilds of 
the Genesee thus passed into the hands of the individ- 
uals who composed the Holland Land Company ; 
and who, for the purchase and improvement of this 
property, formed an association, possessing a capital 
of four millions, three hundred and ninety-two thou- 
sand dollars. 

Intent on converting the forests into fruitful fields, 
and founding their hopes of profit, alone, on the in- 
crease of population and improvements, the Dutch 
proprietors determined to resell these lands, not to 
jobbers and speculators, but to actual settlers, whose 
industry and enterprize should develope the real 
resources of the country, and by cultivation and im- 
provement, lay a solid foundation for its future 
wealth and importance. 

In the year 1797, the extinguishment of the In- 
dian title to the country West of the Genesee river, 
was effected ; and in the year 1800, a land office was 
first opened on the spot now occupied by the village 



APPENDICES. 137 

of Batavia, where settlers, encouraged by low prices, 
long credits and every necessary accommodation, 
soon hastened to establish themselves. 

In the progress of the settlements thus com- 
menced, the proprietors have never sought to build 
their fortunes upon any other foundation than that 
of the public prosperity. As the hardy emigrants 
advanced into the wilderness, more remote agencies 
were successively established. All the land within 
their respective limits, was thrown open for sale, 
without reservation or exception, upon terms highly 
favorable in price, and credit to the settlers ; and if 
these agencies have not been conducted v/ith uni- 
form indulgence and forbearance, towards that merit- 
orious people, the system marked by the proprietors, 
has not been adhered to. 

To illustrate the zeal with which the infant settle- 
ments of this country have been continually fostered 
and cherished, it will be sufficient to state, that in 
addition to the original capital of the Company, 
long since exhausted, there has been expended in 
the building of mills, in the opening and repairing of 
roads, in the erection of school houses, court houses, 
and churches, and in the necessary expenses of sur- 
veys, salaries and commissions to agents, office ex- 
penses and taxes, no less a sum than $761,380.74. 

In the voluntary appropriation of property required 
for fortifications, arsenals and other public purposes, 
in contributions for the relief of the suffering inhabi- 
tants on the Niagara frontier, in the offer to the 
State of every alternate unsold lot of land along the 



138 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

route of the canal, and in the subsequent gratuitous 
cession of a large tract of land in aid of the canal 
fund, the Dutch proprietors have furnished succes- 
sive evidences still more decisive, of their devotion 
to the general interests of the country. The effects 
of views so liberal and enlarged, have been mani- 
fested in the progressive increase of wealth and 
population, in the western counties, and if a tempor- 
ary gloom now hang over them, it will be found to 
originate in causes which are not local, but general, 
and which in their operation, unhappily pervade the 
whole community. 

The whole net receipts of the Holland Land Com- 
pany, arising from their lands in the State of New- 
York, after paying expenses, do not exceed seven 
hundred and twenty thousand dollars, affording, dur- 
ing the twenty-six years in which their capital has 
been thus employed, an average interest of less than 
one per centum per annum ; whilst the same capital 
vested in public stocks, would have produced an 
annual interest of six per centum, and would have 
amounted during the same period, to a sum little 
short of five millions of dollars ; nevertheless, incon- 
siderable as these receipts have been, the five west- 
ern counties, which in the year 1800, contained not 
a single citizen, now embrace a flourishing popula- 
tion 60,000 souls. 

From these facts, it must be apparent, that the 
benefits of the arduous undertaking, in which the 
Holland Land Company have been engaged, for the 
last twenty years, have hitherto been reaped exclu- 



A P PEN DICE S. 139 

sively by the State of New-York and its citizens ; 
and if the proprietors receive no commendation or 
credit for the persevering constancy with which, in 
reliance on the public faith, their fortunes have been 
lavished in pursuing that undertaking, they must at 
least be exempted from the imputation of having 
exercised any undue rigor towards the settlers, in ob- 
taining the reimbursement of their advances. 

Your memorialist flatters himself with the hope 
that this brief exposition of facts, will serve to show 
that the Dutch proprietors have neither rendered 
themselves justly obnoxious to private complaints 
nor to public odium ; that they deserve not to be 
viewed with an eye of jealousy or suspicion by the 
guardians of the public welfare, and that any attempt 
to burden them with oppressive and vexatious taxes, 
would be harsh and unmerited, if not subversive to 
their private rights, and inconsistent with the public 
faith and honor. It must be obvious also, that in the 
present exhausted state of their finances, the imposi- 
tion of additional taxes, would necessarily compel 
them to exact more speedy and punctual payments 
from the settlers who are indebted to them, and 
that a measure of this nature, instead of relieving, 
must tend materially to increase, the distresses of 
that class of citizens. 

Your memoralist therefore, humbly conceiving 
that the new system of taxation proposed by the 
petitioners, is recommended neither by motives of 
policy towards the citizens of this state, nor of jus- 
tice and good faith towards the foreign landholders, 



140 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

most humbly prays, that it may not receive the 
sanction or countenance of the legislature. 

Paul Busti, 

General Agent of the Holland Land Company. 
Philadelphia Feb. 2^ 1820. 



APPENDIX D. 

HOLLAND LAND COMPANY PURCHASE. 

DERIVATION OF TITLE. 

The property included in this purchase of the 
Holland Land Company in the vicinity of Cazenovia 
was acquired, in the main, not by patents from the 
State, but by the purchase of lands originally pat- 
ented to other parties. Until the passage of certain 
acts of the Legislature in 1796 and 1797,' the title 

' By an act of the Legislature of New York passed April ii, 1796, 
(Nineteenth Session, Chap. 58) it was provided " that it shall be law- 
ful for the persons by whom the land for the purchase of which 
Wilhelm Willink, Nicolaas van Staphorst, Christian van Eeghen, 
Hendrick VoUenhoven, Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck and Pieter 
Stadnitski, being aliens, have already contracted and paid are now 
held to hold the same in fee simple as trustees for the said six per- 
sons," and that these trustees should file declarations of trust specify- 
ing the lands so held by them. By this act, however, the lands must 
be sold by the members of the Holland Land Company to citizens of 
the United States within seven years, unless the owners should in the 
meantime themselves become citizens, or the title in them should 
revert to the state. 

By the act of February 24, 1797, (Twentieth Session, Chap. 27) 
the provisions of this legislation were extended to cover lands pur- 
chased for other members of the Holland Land Company — Jan 
Willink, Jacob van Staphorst, Nicholas Hubbard, Peter van Eeghen, 
Isaac Ten Cate, Jan Stadnitski and Aernout van Beeftingh — or any 
of them. 

Later acts permitted all aliens not subjects of powers at war with 
the United States to hold real estate without liability of forfeiture on 
account of alienism. 

141 



142 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

was never invested in the Holland Land Company 
or its individual members, but was usually taken by 
Messrs. Herman Le Roy and William Bayard, mer- 
chants and bankers in New York City, who acted as 
purchasing agents for the Company. The tract 
includes : 

(A) — A tract of 48,074 acres lying in the "Gore " 
between the " Twenty Townships " and the " Mili- 
tary Lands " ; 

(B) — A tract of 16,600 acres immediately South 
of the former ; 

(C) — The " Road Township " of 25,325 acres ad- 
joining the first mentioned tract on the North. 
(This was subdivided into four portions designated 
on the accompanying map : C^, C^, C^ and C^) ; 

(D) — Township No. i of the " Twenty Town- 
ships," containing 27,187 acres. 

(A.) — 4.8,074 Acres. 

On August 13, 1 791 this tract was sold by the 
State to John W. Watkins and Royal Flint at 3 s. 
8 d. per acre — of which one-sixth part was to be 
paid in six months and the residue in two equal 
installments, one in nine months and the other in 
eighteen months. The original purchase, as shown 
by a document executed Feb. 28, 1792, was for ac- 
count of a syndicate of seven individuals : Royal 
Flint, Jonathan Lawrence, Robert C. Livingston, 
John Lamb, Melancton Smith, James Watson, and 
John W. Watkins, as tenants in common. On 



APPENDICES. 143 

April 18, 1792 Royal Fint conveyed his one-seventh 
interest to John W. Watkins for a consideration of 
$7,000. 

It was in October, 1792, that Mr. Lincklaen ex- 
amined this tract and was favorably impressed with 
it. Negotiations were promptly entered into for its 
purchase by the agents of the Holland Land Com- 
pany, and on the 12th of November, 1792, Messrs. 
LeRoy and Bayard, acting for the Holland Land 
Company, acquired the title to an undivided five- 
sevenths interest in the entire tract for the sum of 
;^4,932. They also secured a deed from James Wat- 
son on November 29, 1792, of his one-seventh inter- 
est, the consideration being ^1,1 58 ; and on February 
22, 1793, secured from James Lamb a deed to the 
final one-seventh interest for the consideration of 

;^3.433- 

The actual letters patent from the State, in ac- 
cordance with the original contract of sale, were 
issued on January 14, 1793, to John W. Watkins, 
and on the 27th of the same month, for a nominal 
consideration, he conveyed the property by deed to 
Messrs. LeRoy and Bayard. 

The title had now passed practically into the 
hands of the Holland Land Company ; though be- 
fore it stood nominally as such upon the records a 
number of subsequent deeds are recorded — such as 
that of Dec. 24, 1793, by Herman LeRoy and Wil- 
liam Bayard to James McEvers for a nominal con- 
sideration ; that on January 12, 1794, by James 
McEvers to Herman LeRoy, William Bayard and 



144 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

Jan Lincklaen ; that on February 9, 1798, by Her- 
man Le Roy, William Bayard, and Jan Lincklaen to 
Paul Busti ; one on July 10, 1798, by Paul Busti to 
Herman Le Roy, William Bayard, James McEvers, 
John Lincklaen and Gerrit Boon in trust for certain 
members of the Holland Land Company specifically 
named; and a final deed Feb. 15, 1799, from the 
trustees above mentioned to the members of the 
Holland Land Company. 

(B). — 16,600 Acres. 

On July 29, 179', the tract of land denoted as 
" B " on the accompanying Map was sold by the 
State to John W. Watkins and Augustus Sackett at 
the rate of 3s. 5|d. per acre. On Nov. 12, 1792, 
(shortly after Mr. Lincklaen's examination of the 
land) Watkins and Sackett sold the property to 
Messrs. Le Roy and Bayard for ^^3,400. The letters 
patent were issued by the State to John W, Wat- 
kins on June 14, 1793, and deed executed from him 
to Messrs. LeRoy and Bayard on the 29th of the 
same month. 

This put the property in the control of the Hol- 
land Land Company ; though it was subsequently 
subject to the same transfers as the larger tract men- 
tioned above. 

(Cj. — The ''Road Toivnshipr 
I. On January nth, 1793, the Commissioners of 
the Land Ofifice passed a resolution granting to Ed- 
ward Edwards (" in consideration of his having ex- 
plored, opened, and made a road from the point 



A PPENDICES. 1 4 5 

where a road laid out by Jacob Delamater, Peter 
Van Gaasbeck and James Oliver did terminate on 
the West branch of the Delaware River to the South 
end of the Cayuga Lake, agreeable to his contract 
entered into with the said Commissioners on the first 
day of April a.d. 179 i "), 15,000 acres of land to be 
later selected between the "Twenty Townships" 
and the " Military Tract." 

Edwards executed a power of attorney on January 
28, 1793, to Herman LeRoy and under this the land 
was located as noted at C' on the accompanying 
map. Previous to this, however, the property had 
passed into the control of White Matlack, of New 
York City, from whom Messrs. LeRoy and Bayard 
had purchased it on August 28, 1792, at 5 shillings 
per acre. Letters patent were issued on October, 
20, 1794. A deed from Edwards to Herman LeRoy 
and Jan Lincklaen followed on January 19, 1795. 

2. An additional 5,000 acres was granted to Benj. 
Hovey. Hovey deeded this on February 2, 1792, 
to White Matlack of New York City, who subse- 
quently assigned it to Messrs. LeRoy and Bayard 
under articles of agreement — the consideration being 
five shillings per acre. 

The letters patent, however, were issued to Ben- 
jamin Hovey October 20, 1794, and on March 15, 
1795, the title passed from Benjamin Hovey and 
wife to Messrs. LeRoy and Lincklaen — the con- 
sideration stated in the deed being $2,812. 

3. The Commissioners of the Land Ofifice had 
granted to Gorham & Phelps 5,000 acres in the 



146 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

same " road township " on account of their opening 
of a road " from the Oneyda Castle to the Mohawk 
River." Their claim was transferred to White Mat- 
lack and from him passed to Messrs. LeRoy and 
Bayard, who received letters patent on December 
28, 1801. 

4. There remained a small strip of land 352 chains 
and 30 links in length by 9 chains and 23 links in 
width, at the extreme South end of the original 
" Road Township." Messrs. LeRoy and Bayard 
having come into the possession of the land adjoin- 
ing, secured from the State on October 20, 1794, 
letters patent to this strip of 325 acres. 

CD). — Township No. i. 

The Commissioners of the Land Office on July 
15, 1791, accepted an application made by Alexander 
Webster, Edward Savage and John Williams to pur- 
chase this tract at 3 s. 6 d. per acre, one-sixth to be 
paid October i, 1791, and the residue in two equal 
installments, April i, 1792, and January i, 1793. 
On August 28, 1792, White Matlack of New York 
City, who had come into possession of the rights 
accruing under this contract, transferred all interest 
in them to Messrs. LeRoy and Bayard for the con- 
sideration of five shillings per acre, and on Novem- 
ber 9, 1792, Messrs. Webster, Savage and Williams, 
the original parties to the contract, executed an as- 
signment of their rights for a nominal consideration. 

L. C. R. 



APPENDIX E. 

FRANCIS ADRIAN VAN DER KEMP, 

AND 

JOHN JACOB VAN DER KEMP. 

The Rev. Francis Adrian van der Kemp, a man 
of remarkable learning and talent, came from Hol- 
land to this country in 1786 a political refugee 
after the downfall of the Patriot party, in the forma- 
tion of which he had labored with Baron van der 
Capellen and many other distinguished compatriots, 
at the same time with their espousal of the Ameri- 
can cause. Following the advice of General Wash- 
ington, whom he visited at Mount Vernon on his first 
arrival in America, and whom he consulted on his 
plan of pursuing an agricultural life, he sought to 
make his new home among the Dutch settlements 
on the Hudson, choosing Kingston, where his wife's 
kinsfolk, the Beekmans, lived. 

For some unknown reason he left the river, and, 
possibly attracted by memories of a journey ' through 
the forest waters of Oneida Lake in the summer of 
1792, when he visited on his way to Oswego De 
Wattines, " the Frenchman of Frenchman's Island," 
he bought of George Parish a thousand acres on its 
North shore, and went indeed into the wilderness." 

Touched, however, by pity for the loneliness of 

' See Seymour, pp. lOO-ioi. Also Liancouit, i., p. 351. 
- " Van der Kemp's Settlement, now Constantia." — Turner, Phelps 
and Gorham Purchase, p. 386. Also Liancourt, i., p. 349. 

147 



148 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

his wife, who, as he said, had left home and friends 
for him, he moved once more, and this time to 
Oldenbarneveld, now Trenton, where she might 
enjoy the society of the family of his old companion 
in arms. Col. Mappa, then agent for the Trenton 
tract of the Holland Land Company. Here, sur- 
rounded with fine books and pictures that filled their 
simple cottage, they practised high thinking, if not 
plain living, "mindful of hospitality" — forming and 
cherishing personal ties both at home and abroad 
that kept them abreast with the greatest events of 
their time. 

Governor Seymour often dwelt ' on the poetic 
justice by which — long years after Judge van der 
Kemp's voluntary exile to this country and his aid 
in obtaining in Holland the loan for the prosecution 
of our War of Independence, his eldest son, John 
Jacob — by no inherited right, but by his own merit 
— became the general agent of the vast concern of 
the Holland Land Company — the relation of the 
members of which to that loan has already been 
seen. Last of its General Agents, under him the 
Company's afTairs were finally closed, and its books 
and papers returned to Amsterdam. 

The following sketch of his life is taken from a 
Philadelphia paper: 

" John J. van der Kemp, Esq., who departed this 
life on the 4th inst (December, 1855) ^"^ ^^s long 
held an enviable position in the respect and esteem 
of this community, was born in the city of Leyden, 
Holland, in the month of April, 1783, and descended 

^ Penn. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., vol. I., pp. 107, 108. 



APPENDICES. 149 

from a line of ancestors several of whom were dis- 
tinguished for their virtues, their prowess in arms 
and their great renown in literature. 

" The father of our deceased fellow-citizen, Fran- 
cois Adrian van der Kemp, was educated for the 
Protestant ministry, and long discharged its duties in 
an able and conscientious manner. The extent and 
variety of his acquirements, especially in the ancient 
and modern languages, were almost incredible. 

" Having been from the first an enthusiastic and 
energetic advocate of the American revolution, in 
the struggles which subsequently took place in his 
own country he sided with the patriots, and on the 
failure of their cause and his enlargement from 
prison, embarked with his family for this country^ 
where he arrived in May, 1788. He was received 
by the distinguished men of our country with the 
respect due to a persecuted patriot, and, with the 
moderate means he had been enabled to bring with 
him, established himself in the western part of New 
York, then almost a wilderness, where he lived many 
years, an example of the contentment which a good 
man always carries with him, and died amidst a 
populous community which had grown up around 
him, universally respected. 

" His son, the object of this notice, had just com- 
pleted his fifth year when he reached our shores, 
and having been reared and educated under the im- 
mediate eye and imbued with the principles of such 
a parent, with the added supervision of a mother of 
equally eminent lineage and high qualities, could 
not have failed to perform his allotted part in the 



150 JOURNALS OF JOHN LINCKLAEN. 

business of life in a satisfactory manner. Having 
entered one of the branch offices of the Holland 
Land Company at a very early age, he was, in his 
twenty-first year, viz., in 1804, esteemed worthy to 
occupy the important post of chief clerk in the oflfice 
of the general agency of the company, in this city. 
He held that position for twenty years, and on the 
death of Mr. Busti, in 1824, he succeeded to the 
General Agency, having been before provisionally 
appointed as successor in case of Mr. Busti's resigna- 
tion or death. Thus as Chief Clerk and General 
Agent, Mr. van der Kemp was connected with the 
affairs of the Holland purchase in Western New 
York, from 1804 until within a few years, when, 
amidst the anti-renters and legislative difficulties, 
then present and impending, under his judicious and 
disinterested counsel, its vast interest was finally 
disposed of. 

" That his whole administration of these great and 
complicated concerns, and his magnanimous course 
which brought it to a close, were duly appreciated, 
the late agent had abundant testimony from the dis- 
tant proprietors whom he had so well served. 

" But great as were his merits in the posts at which 
his labors were most severe, the services he rendered 
in the PJiiladelphia Saving Fund Society, of which he 
was a manager from the year 18 19 till his death, 
were those in which his charitable spirit took the 
most delight." 

He left two children by his wife Eliza Hepburn, a 
son of his own name, who resides in Paris, and Mrs. 
Bernard (Pauline Elizabeth) Henry, of Philadelphia. 



APPENDIX F. 

JUDGE WILLIAM COOPER. 

"Judge William Cooper was born at Byberry, 
Pa., in 1754, and died at Cooperstown in 1809. His 
first ancestor in America was James Cooper (his great 
grandfather) of Stratford-upon-Avon, who came to 
New Jersey in 1682, upon getting a grant of land 
there, and thence went to Philadelphia where he 
lived and died. The family were Quakers and dwelt 
in Pennsylvania, but William married Elizabeth 
Eenimore, of New Jersey, and was living at Bur- 
lington in that State when he began the settlement 
of Cooperstown, N. Y., in 1786. He brought his 
wife and children thither in 1790. He was the first 
Judge of the Otsego County Court of Common- 
pleas (though never a lawyer), and Representative 
in Congress 1795-7 and 1799-1801. In 1795-7 his 
district was the then counties of Otsego, Mont- 
gomery, Herkimer, Tioga, Ontario, and Onondaga. 
At the election for that Congress of 1795 this dis- 
trict, containing the whole Western part of the State, 
cast 3,961 votes only." 

— Paul Fenimore Cooper. 



APPENDIX G. 

ONEIDA CASTLE. 

" For a number of months past I have been study- 
ing up the history of the Oneida Indians, and as to 
their locations, etc. The result of my investigations 
is to the following effect : — They located at first on 
Oneida Lake, at the mouth of the Oneida River, the 
boundary between Madison and Onondaga Counties. 
Later, they removed to the mouth of the Oneida 
Creek (on the same lake), the boundary between 
Madison and Oneida Counties. Their next move, 
centuries ago, was to what is now the town of Stock- 
bridge, in Madison County, on an eminence over- 
looking the valley of Oneida Creek — a dozen miles, 
perhaps, South from Oneida Station, and a few miles 
from Oneida Castle (formerly and at times called 
Castleton). On that eminence was the ' stone,' 
the emblem of the nation, and where their councils 
were held and their council fires lighted ; I do not 
find that the councils were ever changed from that 
place after their location there. There was quite a 
settlement of those Indians at Oneida Castle, also 
at Oriskany, also in Broome County on the Sus- 
quehanna ; there was a mission church for them where 
Rev. Mr. Kirkland and Rev. Eleazar Williams' 

' At one time believed to be the Dauphin, son of Louis XVL See 
Hanson, The Lost Prince, and Putnam's Monthly, 1S53, 1868 ; also, 
per contra, Farkman, Half Century of Conflict, vol. i., p. 80. 

152 



APPENDICES. 153 

officiated, between Oneida Castle and Vernon vil- 
lage, and near there a large butternut orchard, with 
a settlement near it. There was a burial place cen- 
turies ago, of 400 acres, in the valley below the 
eminence before spoken of — since mainly grown up 
to trees, but still later and now cultivated fields. All 
of this is said in explanation as to what is in the 
' Journal ' as to ' Old Oneida, another Indian town.' 

" As to whether the old Oneida Castle was 
on the present site of Oneida Castle, my conclu- 
sion is, from my investigations, that ' Oneida 
Castle ' was so named because it was in the vicinity 
or heart of the Oneida settlements, and near the 
* stone ' where the councils were held ; and that the 
mention in the 'Journal' 'for old Oneida, another 
Indian town ' has reference to the place of the 
' stone.' Sir William Johnson, about 1763, in his 
report to his Government as to the Indians, speaks 
of the Oneidas having two villages, one some 25 
miles from Rome, and another about 12. I think 
the one at Oneida Castle and the other on the emi- 
nence at the ' stone ' are the ones referred to. Possi- 
bly there may then have been a settlement at the 
foot of Oneida Creek, on Oneida Lake, but history is 
silent on that point. Now I may be wrong in my 
inference, founded, however, on such historical ac- 
counts as I have, as to what or where ' Old Oneida, 
another Indian town ' was ; but the foregoing is the 
best light I have. 

*' I do not think A. VanEps was the white man re- 
ferred to in that ' Journal.' He was a merchant, 



154 JO URN A LS OF JOHN L INCKL A EN. 

and not a tavern keeper — a Gershom Hubbell kept 
a tavern — and besides I think (from Jones' An- 
nals^ that VanEps was not at Oneida Castle in 
1791-2. 

" On inquiry I learn that the ' ancient looking yel- 
low house ' stood on the hill at * Heckla Works.' 
About 1800 the 'Westmoreland furnace' was built 
at what is now Heckla, and that the said ' yellow 
dwelling' stood there until about 1850, when it 
was removed or torn down by Jeff Olney, who 
erected the new building now there." 

— D. E. Wager, Rome, N. Y., Dec. 31, 1894. 

" Not long before the opening ceremony of our 
Forest Hill Cemetery, in 1850, I accompanied Mr. 
William Tracy and another of the trustees in an 
excursion to Stockbridge Hill, which, as Mr. Wager 
says, was doubtless the last resting place of the 
Oneidas before their departure for Green Bay. 
There we found the sacred stone, which, according 
to their tradition, had followed them in their pre- 
vious migrations, and which has been visited and 
described by Schoolcraft, Stone and others. We 
obtained permission from the owner of the land on 
which it lay to remove it to the new cemetery. 
Thither it was transported shortly afterward, and 
on the day of the public observance of the opening 
of the grounds it was visited by delegations of 
Oneidas and Onondagas who conducted ceremonial 
rites about it, and in the course of the speeches 
made by them and their interpreter gave their con- 



APPENDICES. 155 

sent to its remaining in the perpetual custody of 
the Association. Some thirty or forty Indians were 
present and added much to the interest of the occa- 
sion. The stone occupies a conspicuous place near 
the entrance." 

— M. M. Bagg, Utica, N. Y., Jan. i, 1895. 



INDEX. 



Accounts, system of, 14. 

Adams, Dr., 65. 

Adlum, John, 45. 

Albany, 81. 

Allen, General, 88. 

Allen, Madame, 33. 

Amsterdam, i. 

Arms, Lincklaen, 26. 

Arriens, Col., 26. 

Athens, Pa. (Tioga Point), 56. 

Atley, Mr., 84. 

Auburn, N. Y., 66. 

Authorities consulted, vii. 



B- 



BALDWIN, ISAAC, 58. 
Barrett's, 127. 

Batavia Land Office, 17, 137. 
Bayard, William, 142-6. 
Bennington, Vt., 81, 82. 
Bethlehem, Pa., 32. 
Bingham, William, 55, 75. 
Birch's, 114. 

Blackstone, Stephen F., 13. 
Boon, Gerrit, 5, 33, 67 ; journey 

with, 95-106 ; sugar industry, 

II. 
Brown (a Quaker), 62. 



Brunshall, 127. 
Buck, Josiah, 66. 
Busti, Paul, 6, 17 ; memorial to 
Legislature, 134-140. 



l^ANANDAIGUA, 63. 
Caneserago Creek, 112. 
Caneserago, Indian village, 112. 
Catherine's Town, 61. 
Cattle, importation of, 15. 
Cayuga, 65, 66 ; Ferry, 65 ; 

Lake, 65. 
Cayuga Road, 109, no. 
Cazenove, Charles Antoine, 132. 
Cazenove, Raoul de, 131. 
Cazenove, Theophilus, 5, 17, 

131. 
Cazenovia, town established, 15 ; 

named, 13. 
Cazenovia, Lake, 112, 113. 
Cazenovia tract, exploration of, 

107-127. 
Champlain, Lake, 86. 
Chapin, General, 63. 
Charlotte River, 114. 
Chenango River, navigation, 54, 

113, 114. 



157 



158 



INDEX. 



Chittenden, Gov. Thomas, 88 

90. 
Clarendon, Vt., S3. 
Clark, Gen. John S., 66. 
Clinton, Gov. George, 98. 
Coal, 36, 38, 39 n. 
Colbrath, Col., 98. 
Conradstown, 97. 
Cookhouse, 53. 
Cooper, Judge William, 72, 74, 

99. 151. 
Cooperstovvn, 72, 106. 
Cornplanter, 10. 
Cranberry Creek, 105. 
Culver, David, 61. 
Currency, note on, 74. 



D. 



'ANFORTII, Major Asa, 66. 
Dartmouth College, 92. 
Davidson, Mr., 39. 
Day, Michael, 13. 
Deane, Mr., loi. 
Delaware River, navigation of, 

49, 120. 
Denny, John, 113. 
De Villars, Louis, 114. 
Dishler's Tavern, 31, 
Dondel, Mr., 103. 
Doolittle, John, 52. 
Downing, John, 36. 
Drinker, Mr., 48, 50, 51. 
Dyer, Thomas, 38. 

Edick, 72. 

Edminston, 114. 

Edwards, Edward, 144, 145. 

Ellison, Henry, 44. 

Elmira (Newtown Point), 57, 58. 



Enos, General, 92. 
Erie Canal, 16. 
Erwin, Col. Arthur, 59. 
Esopus, 115. 
Expenses, 116-118, 

Fay, DAVID, 13. 

Fishkill, 115. 
Flint, Royal, 142. 
Floyd, 98. 
Fonda's Patent, 98. 
Forman, Catherine, 19 ; Jona- 
than, 20 ; Samuel S., 13. 
Fort Herkimer, 104. 
Fort Plain, 104. 
Fort Schuyler, 13, 20 «, 103. 
Fort Stanwix, 98. 
Fox, Charles, 103. 
Freeborn, Daniel, or Gideon, 13. 
French Peter, 69. 
" Friends' Advice," 62. 
Friends' Settlement, 61, 76. 



G. 



lENEALOGY, Ledyard, 19 ; 

Lincklaen, 25, 26. 
Genesee Road, 112. 
Geneva, 63-65. 
German Flats, 71, 97. 
Germantown, 31. 
Good Peter, 68. 
Gore, the, 12, iii, 126, 142-4. 
Gorham, 64. 

Gorham & Phelps, 58, 60, 145. 
Governor's Purchase {Twenty 

Townships), 12, 109. 
Great Canada Creek, 104. 
Greene, James, 13. 
Guthrie, William, 114. 



INDEX. 



159 



H. 



LARDENBERG'S Patent, 
125. 

Hardenburgh, John L., 66. 

Hark, Col. (Hart), 72. 

Harmony, Pa., 50, 51, 52. 

Harpersfield, 115, 120. 

Harris, John, 65. 

Hasbrouck's, 115, iiS, 125. 

Haugena, Lake, 12. 

Hawley, Rev. Gideon, 53. 

Hayden, Rev. H. E., 40. 

Heckla Iron Works, 154, 

Heller's, 34. 

Henry, Prince of the Nether- 
lands, 26. 

Hillborn, Joseph, 51, 52. 

Hobbottom, 42. 

Hoeven, Gertrude, 2, 26. 

Holland Land Company, 5, g, 
10, 17 ; Cazenovia Purchase, 
12, 141-146 ; members of, 114 ; 
Memorial to Legislature, 134- 
140. 

Holland's Patent, loi, 102. 

Hollenbeck, Col,, 36. 

Hollingsworth, 41. 

Hooper, Col. Robert L., 48, 55, 
75- 

Hoops, Major Adam, 57. 

Horsebroek, 115, 118, 125. 

Hovey, Benjamin, 109, 122, 145, 

Huidekoper, Alfred, 16. 

Huidekoper, Henry J., 11. 



IRON, 36, 38, 39 M, 60, 154. 
Indian Treaties — " Big Tree," 
9. 10 ; Newtown Point, 58. 



Jackson, wtlliam, 105, 
106. 

Jever, Margaret van, 132. 

Johnson, Sir William, 104. 

Johnstown, 104, 106. 

Jones, John, 43. 

Journals — Pennsylvania and 
New York, August-Septem- 
ber, 1791, 27-76 ; Vermont, 
September, 1791, 77-93 ; For- 
est journey, April, 1792, 95- 
106 ; Cazenovia Tract, Octo- 
ber, 1792, 107-27. 



K. 



».ATTSKILL, 121. 

Keyes, Col., 85. 

Kirkland, Rev. Samuel, 68, 152. 
Kochbum (Cockburn), 126. 
Kortright, Laurence, 120. 

La FAYETTE, Marquis de, 
69. 

Laird, Samuel, 70, 71. 

Lamb, John, 142, 143. 

Land Agent, duties of, 16. 

Land values — Pennsylvania, 14, 
36, 38, 41, 48, 50 ; Vermont, 
82, 83, 88 ; New York, 55, 60, 
62, 64, 71, 73, 74, loi, 102, 
120, 123, 125, 142-146. 

Lansingburgh, 81. 

Lawrence, Jonathan, 142. 

Ledyard, Benjamin, 19 ; gene- 
alogy, 19. 

Ledyard, Jonathan Denise, 17. 

Lehigh River, 35-38. 

Leonard, Rev. Joshua, 21. 



i6o 



INDEX. 



LeRoy, Herman, 142-6. 
Lincklaen, John — biographical 

sketch, 1-23 ; genealogy, 25- 

26. 
Lindley, Col., 59. 
Livingston, Edward, 126. 
Livingston, Robert C, 142. 
Lock, Nathaniel, 122. 
Locker's, 127. 



M< 



IcCORMICK, HENRY, 58, 

60. 
McEvers, James, 143-146. 
McMasters, James, 55. 
McWill (Maxwell), Guy, 56. 
Manchester, 82. 
Maple trees, 35, 43, 50, 88, 89. 
Maple sugar industry, 11, 12, 43, 

88, 89. 
Mappa, A. G., 99. 
Mappa Tract, 99. 
Matchin's Patent, 100. 
Matlack, White, 145, 146. 
Maxwell, Guy, 56. 
Mayers, John, 97. 
Mayfield Patent, 105. 
Meinders, 82. 
Mercereau, Joshua, 54. 
Mercereau's Mills, 121. 
Merwin's, 82. 
Meyers, 97. 
Middlebury, 84. 
Military Lands, 12, ill, 112. 
Millet, 120. 
Mohawk River, navigation, 20 «, 

100, 106. 
Montour, Catherine, 61. 
More, John, 115. 



Morris, Robert, 9, 58. 
Morris, Thomas, 63. 
Morris' Treaty, 10. 
Mortgages and deeds, 124. 



N 



AZARETH, Pa., 34. 
New City, 81. 

Newtown Point (Elmira), 57, 58, 
New York State, Quit-rents, 74. 
Nicholson, John, 41, 42. 
Nine-mile Creek, 103. 



O, 



'LEOUT Creek, 121. 
Old Schohary, 125. 
Oneida Castle, 68, 70, 152-5. 
Oneida Indians, 68, 70, 152-5. 
Onondaga Reservation, 66. 
Oquaga, 53. 

Orendorff, Conrad, 72, 97. 
Otego Creek, 97. 
Otselic Creek, 110. 
Ot-se-quette, Peter, 69. 
Owahgena Lake, 12, 112, 113. 
Owego, 55, 56. 
Ozeketa, 50. 

r AINE, Judge, 92. 

Painted Post, 58, 59. 

Patchin's Tavern, 127. 

Pearl ash, 71, 76. 

Phelps, Oliver, 63, 64. 

Phelps & Gorham, land owners, 

58, 60. 
Pickering, Col. Timothy, 36, 58. 
Post, John, merchant at Fort 

Schuyler, 13. 
Prescott, 36. 



INDEX. 



l6l 



Preston, Samuel, 48, 50, 51. 
Proctor, Col. Thomas, 35. 
Prop, Col., 35. 



R> 



.ED JACKET, 10. 
Rents, N. Y. State, 74. 
Rents, 55, 70, 99, 120, 126. 
Rice, Thomas, 83. 
Road construction, 43, 49, 53, 

122, 124, 127, 144, 145, 
Road Township, 124, 142, 144- 

46. 
Robert, Joseph, 31. 
Roeter's Eylandt, i. 
Romain (Romeyn) Mills, 104. 
Rome, see Fort Stanwix. 
Roseboom's Ferry, 104, 106. 
Rutland, Vt., 83. 



OABIN, WALTER, 123. 
Sackett, Augustus, 144. 
Salt Spring, 124. 
Sanborn's Tavern, 63. 
Savage, Edward, 146. 
Schohary Creek, 119. 
Schuyler's Lake, 97. 
Scribner, 124. 
Secondago River, 105, 
Seerle, Mr., 39. 
Seizer, Samuel, 102. 
Seneca Lake, 61, 63. 
Service's Patent, 103. 
Shaffer, John, 47. 
Shaftesbury, Vt., 82. 
Shawville, N. Y., 104. 
Shendeken, 119. 
Shippen, Gen., 76. 



Shuep's, 34. 

Single Brethren, Single Sisters, 
32. 

Skeensborough (Whitehall), 86, 

Smith, James, 13. 

Smith, Melancton, 142. 

Smith, Peter, 14. 

Smith, Dr. Wm. H., 39. 

Smith, Col. Wm. S., 123, 126. 

Spring House Tavern, 31. 

Springfield, 106. 

Stadnitski, Mr., 5, 141. 

Stanton, Col. Asa, 46, 47. 

Staring, Judge Henry, 103, 104. 

Steele, Rev. Mr., 21 n. 

Stephens, Eliphalet and Eben- 
ezer, 41, 44. 

Steuben, Baron Frederick Wil- 
liam von, loi. 

Steuben's Patent, loi. 

Stockport, Pa., 48. 

Sugar, II, 12, 89. 

Surveying, 122, 123, 126. 

Susquehannah River, navigation, 

37, 38, 73. 
Sutton, James, 39 n, 40. 
Swingel (Zwingle), Ulrich, 47, 
Sypestyn, Quirina Catherine van, 

132. 



T 



ALLEYRAND, 132. 
Tan bark, 124. 
Taylor, 98. 
Thornbottom, 40. 
Thoyras, Rapin de, 132. 
Tioga Point (Athens), 56. 
Tioga River, navigation, 59. 
Titles, Holland Land Company, 

141-46. 



1 62 



INDEX. 



Towns, Asa C, 13. 
Treaties, Indian, 9, 10, 58. 
Tunkhannock Creek, 41, 43-5. 
Tunnicliff's, 124. 
Tuttle, Philemon, 73. 
Twenty Townships, 12, log, 125, 
142-6. 



W. 



Ui 



INION, 53. 
United Brethren, 32, 34. 
Universal Friend, 62. 
Utica, see Fort Schuyler. 



V. 



AN DER KEMP, Rev. 
Francis Adrian, 20-3, 119, 

147-9- 

Van der Kemp, John Jacob, 6, 
148-150. 

Van der Werken's Mills, 114. 

Van Eps, A., 153, 154. 

Van Rensselaer, Si. 

Veeder, Judge, 106. 

Verhuel, 7. 

Vermont, Land grants, 81, 82, 
87 ; population, 84, 87 ; Sun- 
day laws, 85. 

Vermont Journal, 77-93. 



ALLLS, SAMUEL, 41. 
Wallis & Hollingsworth, 41, 44. 
Watkins, N. Y., 61. 
Watkins, John W., 142-4. 
Watkins & Flint, 122, 142. 
Watkins & Sackett, no, 144. 
Watson, James, 142, 143. 
Wattles, Mr., 121. 
Webster, Alexander, 146. 
Wells, Capt., 76. 
White, Hugh, 98. 
White Marsch, 31. 
Whitestown, N. Y., 70, 98. 
Whitney, William, 53. 
Williams, Rev. Eleazar, 152. 
Williams, John, 146. 
Williamson, Charles, 9. 
W^illiamstown, 92. 
Wilson, John, 13. 
Wilson, J., 55, 75. 
Wind Gap, 34. 
Wright, Ebenezer, 98. 
Wright, Moses, 98. 
Wright, Thomas, 38, 98, 99. 
Wynkoop, William, 57. 
Wyoming, Pa., 36. 

ZwiNGLE, ULRICH, 47. 



ADDENDA. 

Page 14, line 15. The line has lately been re-surveyed, 
and in 1898 marked exactly by a tablet of granite suit- 
ably inscribed, set near the cross-walk leading from the 
Seminary to the Methodist Church. 

P. 72, note 3. " Coll. Hark "—Mr. S. L. Frey thinks 
that this was Col. Henry Herkimer, brother of the Gen- 
eral, who owned a place about eleven miles from 
Cooperstown, at Schuyler's Lake. At the time of the 
Journal his son Timothy lived on the property. 

P. 75. James Wilson, signer of the Declaration of 
Independence. 

Pp. 101-2. Holland's Patent. "Feb. 22, 1769. 
Return of Survey for Lord Holland of a tract of 20,000 
acres of land in the County of Albany, on the North side 
of the Mohawk's River above the German Flatts." 
(Deerfield, Trenton, Floyd and Steuben, Oneida Co.) 
Map of the same. See p. 468 of Calendar of New York 
Colonial Manuscripts, indorsed Land Papers in the office of 
the Secretary of State of New York, 1643-1803. Albany, 
1864. 4to. 1087 pp. 

P. 103. Staring. See appendix to Stone's Life of 
Brant, 4th edition, for reprint of William Tracy's Life 
of Heinrich Staring. 

P. 103. Servis' Patent. " Return of Survey for 
Peter Servis and others, August 4, 1768." See p. 461 of 
Calendar of New York Colonial Manuscripts, indorsed 



2 Addenda 

Land Papers in the Office of the Secretary of State of New 
York, 1 64 J- 1 So J. Albany, 1864. 4to. 1087 pp. Servis' 
Patent covered 25,000 acres, and was granted to Peter 
Servis and twenty-four other tenants (really for the 
benefit of Sir William Johnson) by the Crown, 28th Feb., 
1769, under the administration of Sir Henry Moore, 
Royal Governor of the Colony. After Sir William's 
death, and prior to the Revolution, " his son. Sir John, 
and other heirs sold Servis' Patent to several gentlemen 
residing in New York." So it was not confiscated with 
the other Johnson property. The various other tracts 
were conveyed to Boon in trust, and "on March 24, 
1801, LeRoy, Bayard, and Boon conveyed Servis' Patent 
directly to the Holland Land Company." History of 
Oneida County. Farriss. Philadelphia, 1878, p. 59. 

P. 118. "De Wall's" ; still standing, 1880. "The 
famous place of entertainment for old Kingston ; not 
exactly a hotel, but a house where boarders were taken, 
especially at court time ; it had a capital ball-room, the 
scene of frequent assemblies given by young people in 
the winter season. Full dress was always expected ; 
after each dance a salver with refreshments was handed 
around, with two kinds of cakes, Malaga wine for the 
ladies, and Teneriffe (a sort of Madeira) and gin sling 
for *\\e men. De Wall was a Hollander." P. 174 Syl- 
vester, N. B., History of Ulster Co., Philadelphia, 1880. 

P. 147. Scriba's Patent. " 1794, Nov. 17. Return 
of Survey for George Scriba of 490, 136 acres of land in 
the county of Herkimer " (Scriba's Patent, or Roosevelt's 
purchase, Oswego and Oneida Counties). 

"Receipt of State Treasurer for ^^77,917 ds. in pay- 
ment for the above tract." 

" Map of Preceding Tract." 



Addenda . 3 

For these three documents, see page 980 of Calendar 
of New York Colojiial Manuscripts^ indorsed Lajid Papers 
in the office of the Secretary of State of Neiv York, 1643- 
1803. Albany, 1864. 4to, 1087 pp. 

P. 155. Oneida Castle. ''Old Oneida Castle is 
directly East of Canowaroghare (Oneida Castle) on 
Sauthier's map, 1779 (Vol. I., Documentary History of 
New York) and is on the direct road to Fort Schuyler. 
The site of the Oneida Stone was a much earlier location, 
and had been abandoned for a century previous to 
1791." — Gen. John S. Clark. 



ERRATA. 

P. II, For Henry J. Huidekoper, read Herman J. 
Huidekoper. 

P. 15. 7^9r Chenango County, r^^d^ Herkimer County. 

P. 74, note. For last three lines read : In these 
Journals apparently reference is made to currency of the 
English standard only in the two or three instances 
where the word "sterling," or " stg.," accompanies the 
designation of amounts. In other cases where amounts 
are expressed in pounds, shillings, and pence the reference 
is to the local currency, of which in New York 8 shillings 
were equivalent to a dollar, in Pennsylvania, "js.td., and 
in New England, 6 shillings. Z. C. R. 

P. 10 1. For date of Baron Steuben s death read 1794 
instead of 1798. 

P. 147. For George Parish, read George Scriba. 

"LORENZO," CAZENOVIA, N. Y., April, 1900. 



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